Queering gender and sexual dimensions in EU Directives. The case of EU Italian and English versions
Presenter Title/Affiliation
Uni. Napoli “Parthenope”
Start Date
21-5-2021 2:30 PM
Event Name
Panel discussion
Panel Number
4
Panel Chair Name
Kris Knisely
Zoom URL to Join
https://ciis.zoom.us/j/91432731066
Zoom Meeting ID
914 3273 1066
Abstract
The last decades have seen the international spotlight on human rights of gender non-conforming diversities and traditionally overlooked sexual dimensions, i.e., transgender people and women among others (Motschenbacher 2010). This has triggered awareness-raising movements advocating for the urgent need to mainstream gendered and sexual perspectives into everyday action and language-use. The commitment of such grass-root campaigns has affected the high circles of transgovernmental institutions like the EU, forcing them to take into consideration the existence of complementary and often neglected realities in need of formal recognition and, ultimately, of appropriate linguistic designations. Being at the crossroad of discourse studies, terminology and EU studies, the present contribution aims first of all to identify terms related to the diverse ways of expressing gender and sexual dimensions within highly codified LSP (Language for Special Purposes) texts like EU Directives (Gotti 2016). Secondly, a Critical/Queer perspective both on Language, Gender and Sexuality and on EU Studies intends to uncover the degree of “heteronormative reiteration” (Butler 1993), i.e., the strict binary classification of human beings into women and men, producing gendered and/or sexual meanings that through specific linguistic designations provide taken-for-granted practices and ways of conceptualisation that construct social knowledge of the outside world (Motschenbacher 2010).
The texts considered are EU Directives in their English and Italian versions whose content overtly addresses matters related to the enhancement of gender and sexual equality. Specifically, these comprise: Directives 2000/78/EC, 2004/113/EC, 2006/54/EC, 2010/18/EC, 2010/41/EC, 2011/36/EC, 2011/99/EC and 2012/29/EC. In order to locate the specified terms, quantitative and qualitative analysis are combined with the objective of producing fine-grained results. Firstly, the close-reading of texts is employed to qualitatively locate terms related to gender and sexual dimension; secondly, the results are triangulated with the output offered by the keyword analysis obtained via the combination of the two concordancers WordSmith Tools and SketchEngine. So far the findings have echoed an ongoing fight against heteronormative stances. Although the prevailing tendency reveals dichotomy-based and unbalanced linguistic choices, this prevalence is accompanied by a timid widening of the gender/sex spectrum as far as EU languages are concerned. This slow but constant exploration marks on the one hand the ongoing political struggles in the EU arena between pursuit of socio-democratic principles and promotion of neo-liberal policies; on the other, it testifies to the pivotal role of EU linguistic policies in setting the long-term standards for a full recognition of sex and gender equality.
Presenter Contact
cserena.santonocito@gmail.com
Queering gender and sexual dimensions in EU Directives. The case of EU Italian and English versions
The last decades have seen the international spotlight on human rights of gender non-conforming diversities and traditionally overlooked sexual dimensions, i.e., transgender people and women among others (Motschenbacher 2010). This has triggered awareness-raising movements advocating for the urgent need to mainstream gendered and sexual perspectives into everyday action and language-use. The commitment of such grass-root campaigns has affected the high circles of transgovernmental institutions like the EU, forcing them to take into consideration the existence of complementary and often neglected realities in need of formal recognition and, ultimately, of appropriate linguistic designations. Being at the crossroad of discourse studies, terminology and EU studies, the present contribution aims first of all to identify terms related to the diverse ways of expressing gender and sexual dimensions within highly codified LSP (Language for Special Purposes) texts like EU Directives (Gotti 2016). Secondly, a Critical/Queer perspective both on Language, Gender and Sexuality and on EU Studies intends to uncover the degree of “heteronormative reiteration” (Butler 1993), i.e., the strict binary classification of human beings into women and men, producing gendered and/or sexual meanings that through specific linguistic designations provide taken-for-granted practices and ways of conceptualisation that construct social knowledge of the outside world (Motschenbacher 2010).
The texts considered are EU Directives in their English and Italian versions whose content overtly addresses matters related to the enhancement of gender and sexual equality. Specifically, these comprise: Directives 2000/78/EC, 2004/113/EC, 2006/54/EC, 2010/18/EC, 2010/41/EC, 2011/36/EC, 2011/99/EC and 2012/29/EC. In order to locate the specified terms, quantitative and qualitative analysis are combined with the objective of producing fine-grained results. Firstly, the close-reading of texts is employed to qualitatively locate terms related to gender and sexual dimension; secondly, the results are triangulated with the output offered by the keyword analysis obtained via the combination of the two concordancers WordSmith Tools and SketchEngine. So far the findings have echoed an ongoing fight against heteronormative stances. Although the prevailing tendency reveals dichotomy-based and unbalanced linguistic choices, this prevalence is accompanied by a timid widening of the gender/sex spectrum as far as EU languages are concerned. This slow but constant exploration marks on the one hand the ongoing political struggles in the EU arena between pursuit of socio-democratic principles and promotion of neo-liberal policies; on the other, it testifies to the pivotal role of EU linguistic policies in setting the long-term standards for a full recognition of sex and gender equality.
https://digitalcommons.ciis.edu/lavlang/2021/friday/7
