Item Details

Metaphors we come out by: how structural metaphors construct coming out in internet advice texts

Issue: Vol 14 No. 1 (2020)

Journal: Gender and Language

Subject Areas: Gender Studies Linguistics

DOI: 10.1558/genl.37378

Abstract:

This paper uses critical metaphor analysis to explore the main source domains of cognitive metaphors in online coming out advice for LGB individuals. It highlights how the ontological metaphor to come out (of the closet) is remetaphorised by a number of structural metaphors, especially coming out is movement. Noting that Queer theorists have critiqued coming out both as a concept and as an imperative, the paper argues that the coming out advice examined here perpetuates this discourse through the use of coming out is movement (esp. a journey) and coming out is conflict and suggests that other structural metaphors could be more useful to the readers of coming out advice.

Author: Deborah A. Chirrey

View Original Web Page

References :

Allan, K. (2008) Metaphor and Metonymy: A Diachronic Approach. Chichester: Wiley Blackwell.

Baker, P. (2008) Sexed Texts: Language, Gender and Sexuality. London: Equinox.

Bannink, A. and Wentink, D. (2015) ‘I need to confess something’: coming out on national television. Discourse and Communication 9(5): 535–58. https://doi.org/10.1177/1750481315600301

Butler, J. (1990) Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge.

Cameron, L. (1999) Operationalising ‘metaphor’ for applied linguistic research. In L. Cameron and G. Low (eds) Researching and Applying Metaphor 3–28. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139524704.004

Cameron, L., Maslen, R., Todd, Z., Maule, J., Stratton, P. and Stanley, N. (2009) The discourse dynamics approach to metaphor and metaphor-led discourse analysis. Metaphor and Symbol 24(2): 63–89. https://doi.org/10.1080/10926480902830821

Cass, V. C. (1979) Homosexual identity formation: a theoretical model. Journal of Homosexuality 4: 219–35.

Charteris-Black, J. (2004) Corpus Approaches to Critical Metaphor Analysis. New York: Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230000612

Charteris-Black, J. (2005) Politicians and Rhetoric: The Persuasive Power of Metaphor. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230501706

Chirrey, D. (2003) ‘I hereby come out’: what sort of speech act is coming out? Journal of Sociolinguistics 7(1): 24–37. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9481.00209

Chirrey, D. (2011) Formulating dispositions in coming out advice. Discourse Studies 13(3): 283–98. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461445611400672

Chirrey, D. (2012) Reading the script: an analysis of script formulation in coming out advice texts. Journal of Language and Sexuality 1(1): 35–58. https://doi.org/10.1075/jls.1.1.03chi

Deignan, A. (2008) Corpus linguistic data and the conceptual metaphor theory. In M. S. Zanolto, L. Cameron and M. C. Caval (eds) Confronting Metaphor in Use: An Applied Linguistic Approach 149–62. Amsterdam: John Benjamin Publishing Company. https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.173.10dei

Dhaenens, T. (2013) Teenage queerness: negotiating heteronormativity in the representation of teenagers in Glee. Journal of Youth Studies 16(3): 304–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2012.718435

Duggan, L. (2002) The new homonormativity: the sexual politics of neoliberalism. In R. Castronovo and D. D. Nelson (eds) Materializing Democracy: Toward a Revitalised Cultural Politics 175–94. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822383901-007

Edelman, E. A. (2014) Neither in nor out: taking the ‘T’ out of the closet. In L. Zimman, J. L. Davies and J. Raclaw (eds) Queer Excursions: Retheorising Binaries in Language, Gender and Sexuality 150–69. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199937295.003.0008

Flusberg, S. J., Matlock, T. and Thibodeau, P. H. (2018) War metaphors in public discourse. Metaphor and Symbol 33(1): 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/10926488.2018.1407992

Gibbs, R. W. (1993) Processes and products in making sense of tropes. In A. Ortney (ed.) Metaphor and Thought 252–76. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139173865.014

Goatly, A. (1997) The Language of Metaphors. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203210000

Gray, M. L. (2009) Negotiating identities/queering desires: coming out online and the remediation of the coming out story. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 14(4): 1162–89. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2009.01485.x

Guittar, N. A. and Rayburn, R. L. (2016) Coming out: the career management of one’s sexuality. Sexuality and Culture 20(2): 336–57. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-015-9325-y

Holmgreen, L. (2008) Biotech as ‘biothreat’? Metaphorical constructions in discourse. Discourse and Society 19(1): 99–119. https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926507083691

Hunter, S. (2009) Coming out and Disclosures: LGBT Persons across the Lifespan. New York: Routledge.

Jaworska, S. (2017) Metaphors we travel by: a corpus-assisted study of metaphors in promotional tourism discourse. Metaphor and Symbol 32(3): 161–77. https://doi.org/10.1080/10926488.2017.1338018

Jhang, J. C. (2018) Scaffolding in family relationships: a grounded theory of coming out. Family Relations 67(1): 161–75. https://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12302

Kay, C. J. Roberts, J. Samuels, M. and Wotherspoon, I. (eds) (2010) Historical Thesaurus of English. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Kim, A. (2009) Speaking ‘out’: ideologies, identities, and individuals in coming out stories. Intersections 10(1): 239–78.

Kitzinger, C. (2000) Doing feminist conversation analysis. Feminism and Psychology 10(2): 163–93. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959353500010002001

Koller, V. (2002) A shotgun wedding: co-occurrence of war and marriage metaphors in mergers and acquisitions discourse. Metaphor and Symbol 17(3): 179–203. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327868MS1703_2

Koller, V. (2008) Lesbian Discourses: Images of a Community. New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203928691

Kövecses, Z. (2002) Metaphor: A Practical Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Lakoff, G. (1993) The contemporary theory of metaphor. In A. Ortney (ed.) Metaphor and Thought 202–51. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139173865.013

Lakoff, G. and Johnson, M. (1980) Metaphors we Live by. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

Lakoff, G. and Turner, M. (1989) More than Cool Reason: A Field Guide to Poetic Metaphor. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226470986.001.0001

Landau, M. J., Keefer L. A. and Swanson, T. J. (2017) ‘Undoing’ a rhetorical metaphor: testing the metaphor extension strategy. Metaphor and Symbol 32(2): 63–83. https://doi.org/10.1080/10926488.2017.1297619

Liang, A. C. (1997) The creation of coherence in coming out stories. In A. Livia and K. Hall (eds) Queerly Phrased: Language, Gender and Sexuality 287–309. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Markowe, L. (1996) Redefining the Self: Coming Out as Lesbian. Cambridge: Polity Press.

McCormick, T. L. (2015) Queering discourses of coming out in South Africa. African Studies 74(3): 327–45. https://doi.org/10.1080/00020184.2015.1067998

Milani, T. (2012) Queering the matrix? Language and identity troubles in HIV/AIDS contexts. Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics 41: 59–75. https://doi.org/10.5842/41-0-83

Morrish, L. and Sauntson, H. (2007) New Perspectives on Language and Sexuality. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230599406

Motschenbacher, H. (2010) Language, Gender and Sexual Identity: Poststructuralist Perspectives. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. https://doi.org/10.1075/impact.29

Orne, J. (2011) You will always have to out yourself: reconsidering coming out through strategic outness. Sexualities 14(6): 681–703. https://doi.org/10.1177/1363460711420462

Oxford English Dictionary. Online edition. Retrieved in October 2017 from www.oed.com.

Ponse, B. (1978) Identities in the Lesbian World: The Social Construction of Self. London: Greenwood.

Pragglejaz Group (2007) A method for identifying metaphorically used words in discourse. Metaphor and Symbol 22(1): 1–39. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327868ms2201_1

Rasmussen, M. L. (2004) The problem of coming out. Theory into Practice 43(2): 144–50. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15430421tip4302_8

Rendle-Short, J. (2005) ‘I’ve got a paper-shuffler for a husband’: indexing sexuality on talk-back radio. Discourse and Society 16(4): 561–578. https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926505053057

Rich, A. (1980) Compulsory heterosexuality and lesbian existence. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 5 (4): 631–60. https://doi.org/10.1086/493756

Ritchie, D. (2003) Argument is war – or is it a game of chess? Multiple meanings in the analysis of implicit metaphors. Metaphor and Symbol 18(2): 125–46. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327868MS1802_4

Saxey, E. (2008) Homoplot: The Coming out Story and Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Identity. New York: Peter Lang.

Seidman, S. (2004) Beyond the Closet: The Transformation of Gay and Lesbian Life. New York: Routledge.

Seif, H. (2014) ‘Coming out of the shadows’ and ‘undocuqueer’: undocumented immigrants transforming sexuality discourse and activism. Journal of Language and Sexuality 3(1): 87–120. https://doi.org/10.1075/jls.3.1.05sei

Semino, E. (2008) Metaphor in Discourse. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Van der Bom, I., Coffey-Glover, L., Jones, L., Mills, S. and Paterson, L. L. (2015) Implicit homophobic argument structure: equal marriage discourse in the Moral Maze. Journal of Language and Sexuality 4(1): 102–37. https://doi.org/10.1075/jls.4.1.04mil

Van Rijn-van Tongeren, G. (1997) Metaphors in Medical Texts. Amsterdam: Rodopi.

Ward, J. and Winstanley, D. (2005) Coming out at work: performativity and the recognition and renegotiation of identity. The Sociological Review. 53(3): 447–75. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-954X.2005.00561.x

Wood, K. M. (1997) Narrative iconicity in electronic-mail Lesbian coming out stories. In A. Livia and K. Hall (eds) Queerly Phrased: Language, Gender and Sexuality 257–73. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Wilkinson, S. and Kitzinger, C. (2003) Constructing identities: a feminist conversation analytic approach to positioning in action. In R. Harré and F. Moghaddam (eds) The Self and Others: Positioning Individuals and Groups in Personal, Political, and Cultural Contexts 157–80. Westport, CT: Praeger.

Zimman, L. (2009) ‘The other kind of coming out’: transgender people and the coming out narrative genre. Gender and Language 3(1): 53–80. https://doi.org/10.1558/genl.v3i1.53