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Article published In:
Journal of Language and Sexuality
Vol. 6:2 (2017) ► pp.205–231

‘The sea pulled her skirt up’

The language of same-sex love in Iranian blogs

| Lancaster University, United Kingdom
| Hannam University, Daejeon, South Korea

This article examines the language used by bloggers in Iran who write about same-sex relationships. Homosexuality is a criminal offence in Iran and discussion of sex is tabooed so blogging potentially acts as a form of empowerment for bloggers who desire such relationships. By conducting a qualitative analysis of a small sample of blogs, we show how Iranian bloggers have developed a range of techniques to avoid censorship of their postings, as well as examining how they orient to discourses around same-sex relationships, oppression of their identities and heteronormativity.

Keywords: blogging, Iran, homosexuality, heteronormativity, homophobia, metaphor, allusion, internet
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Homosexuality in Iran
  • 3.The internet and censorship in Iran
  • 4.Blogging in Iran
  • 5.Locating and analysing same-sex oriented Iranian love blogs
  • 6.Analysis
    • 6.1Articulating same-sex desire and sexual activity
    • 6.2Addressing homophobia
    • 6.3Critiquing heterosexuality
  • 7.Discussion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 16 October 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jls.6.2.01bak
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