Article published in:
Gender, Sexuality & Linguistic LandscapesEdited by Tommaso M. Milani
[Linguistic Landscape 4:3] 2018
► pp. 257–277
Linguistic landscapes as pornoheterotopias
(De)regulating gender and sexuality in the public toilet
Rafael de Vasconcelos Barboza | Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro
Rodrigo Borba | Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro
Drawing on multimodal analysis of graffiti in male public restrooms at the Faculdade de Letras of the Universidade Federal do Rio
de Janeiro, this paper investigates how notions of place and gendered/sexualized subjects are discursively (re)constructed in
interactions with the materiality and historicity of the public realm. The analysis focuses on the indexicalities of public
signage and the ways they (in)form understandings of and access to certain spaces. By investigating the fragmented history of
entextualizations of these toilet graffiti as well as the indexicalities of their lexical, graphic, and co(n)textual aspects, we
argue that places can be queered since they are semiotically constructed and discursively
performed. The paper illustrates how static assumptions about place, gender, and sexuality can be disrupted and
ressignified which highlights the pornoheterotopic character of these public restrooms in which semiotic processes that
(de)regulate gender and sexual dissidence are emplaced.
Keywords: toilet graffiti, pornotopia, heterotopia, linguistic landscapes
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.The spatialization of gender and sexuality: Pornoheterotopias
- 3.The mutually constitutive relations among public signage, subjects and spaces
- 4.Contested spaces, contested identities: (De)regulating gender and sexuality in the public toilet
- 4.1Challenging cisheteronormativity
- 4.2Discourses in dispute
- 5.Final remarks
- Notes
-
References
Published online: 26 November 2018
https://doi.org/10.1075/ll.18005.vas
https://doi.org/10.1075/ll.18005.vas
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