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Saving schools from abomination and abnormal sex : a discourse analysis of online public commentary about 'queering' school spaces

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posted on 2023-05-22, 16:43 authored by Angela DwyerAngela Dwyer
Homophobic hatred: these words summarise online commentary made by people in support of a school that banned gay students from taking their same sex partners to a school formal. With the growing popularity of online news sites, it seems appropriate to critically examine how these sites are becoming a new arena in which people can express personal opinions about controversial topics. While commentators equally expressed two dominant viewpoints about the school ban (homophobic hatred and human rights), this paper focuses on homophobic hatred as a discursive position and how the comments work to confirm the legitimacy of the schools’ decision. Drawing on the work of Foucault and others, the paper examines how the comments constitute certain types of subjectivity drawing on dominant ideas about what it means to be homophobic. The analysis demonstrates the complex and competing skein of strategies that constitute queering school social spaces as a social problem.

History

Publication title

Queering Paradigms

Editors

Scherer, Burkhard

Pagination

197-217

ISBN

9783039119707

Department/School

School of Social Sciences

Publisher

Peter Lang Publishing Group

Place of publication

Oxford

Extent

18

Rights statement

Copyright 2010 Peter Lang, AG, International Academic Publishers, Bern

Repository Status

  • Restricted

Socio-economic Objectives

Gender and sexualities

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