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Language, gender, and (hetero)normativity

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Incels and Ideologies

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Language, Gender and Sexuality ((PSLGS))

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Abstract

This chapter explores how incels construct gendered social actors. It takes named gendered social actors and explores how these terms are used at a more qualitative level. I argue that there are a greater number of lexical items denoting male social actors and they are constructed in more complex ways than female social actors, and so explore more of these references. I focus on how male social actors are constructed in a hierarchy based around orientations towards hegemonic masculine norms. I also note the importance of gendered relationships and discuss how male and female social actors are discussed in relation to each other.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For a discussion on small caps for conceptual domains, see Chapter 2.

  2. 2.

    The Proud Boys is a North American far-right, White-nationalist, neo-fascist organisation that only allows men to become members. The Proud Boys advocate for and engage in political violence. Furthermore, the group has expressed explicit support for former president of the USA, Donald Trump. Several community members were arrested as part of the 6th January 2021 insurrection in Washington DC, which occurred during the peaceful transfer of power from the Trump administration to the Biden administration (see Kitts, 2021; Nguyen & Gokhale, 2022).

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  1. Department of Languages, Information, and Communications, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK

    Frazer Heritage

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Heritage, F. (2023). Language, gender, and (hetero)normativity. In: Incels and Ideologies. Palgrave Studies in Language, Gender and Sexuality. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-40184-8_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-40184-8_4

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