Skip to Main Content
 

Global Search Box

 
 
 
 

Files

File List


Norfleet_2024_MA-thesis.pdf (939.36 KB)

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

Language and Queer Women’s Identity in Taiwan

Norfleet, Caroline Hill
http://orcid.org/0009-0007-1464-4834
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1713439479196515

Abstract Details

2024, Master of Arts, Ohio State University, East Asian Languages and Literatures.
Taiwan is known for having some of the most advanced LGBT rights and vibrant LGBT culture in East Asia. Communities of queer women, from the birth of T-po bar culture in the 1960s to the feminist movements of the 1990s to the present day, have played a key role in the development of LGBT Taiwan. This thesis examines the language use of queer women in contemporary Taiwan, examining how they use labels to construct individual and group identity and the beliefs they hold about queer women’s language use. This thesis surveyed 84 queer women from across Taiwan. Though labels such as tongxinglian “homosexual” and tongzhi “comrade” were used by a large proportion of respondents, no single label emerged as a unifying umbrella for queer women’s identities. Respondents were generally ambivalent towards labels: follow-up interviews with seven survey respondents revealed that participants used labels in their own speech, but did not report using them to refer to themselves when not directly asked. Some participants associated label usage with queer people who identified more actively with their sexual orientations and engaged to a greater extent with the LGBT community. All interview participants reported revealing their sexual orientations to some people in their lives, though not all reported directly coming out. Participants instead utilized strategies of directness and indirectness and decided strategically whether and to what extent to identify themselves with the queer community when expressing their sexual orientations. The survey also revealed weaker stereotypes about queer women’s language than men’s: though some respondents believed queer women to speak in a more masculine way and have differences in tone and intonation, respondents generally relied on a shared cultural lexicon to identify other queer women.
Marjorie K.M. Chan (Advisor)
Donald Winford (Committee Member)
97 p.
Asian Studies; Linguistics
Taiwan; sociolinguistics; lavender linguistics

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Norfleet, C. H. (2024). Language and Queer Women’s Identity in Taiwan [Master's thesis, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1713439479196515

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Norfleet, Caroline. Language and Queer Women’s Identity in Taiwan. 2024. Ohio State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1713439479196515.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Norfleet, Caroline. "Language and Queer Women’s Identity in Taiwan." Master's thesis, Ohio State University, 2024. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1713439479196515

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1713439479196515
414
© 2024, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.
Release 3.2.12