Di/s/identity and Cross-Modal Negotiation of Race and Gender: Dynamics of /s/ Production in Miami Latinx Drag
Presenter Title/Affiliation
Florida International University
Start Date
22-5-2021 1:30 PM
Event Name
Panel discussion
Panel Number
13
Panel Chair Name
Ryan Redmond
Zoom URL to Join
https://ciis.zoom.us/j/93838348253
Zoom Meeting ID
938 3834 8253
Abstract
Miami Latinx Drag”
Sociophonetic work on the production of /s/ has shown an indexical link between feminine gender expression and higher centers of gravity and negative spectral skew, corresponding to a fronted articulation of [s+] (Hazenberg 2012; Podesva and Van Hofwegen 2014). In perception studies, speakers also have linked [s+] with femme-coded speech, corresponding to a deviation from heteronormative expectations of masculinity. However, the indexical associations of fronted /s/ have been shown to differ depending on socioethnic context (Pharao et al. 2014). This work adds to the literature on the use of /s/ in communities of drag queens (Calder 2019) by demonstrating how its gendered associations get mediated and complicated by the Latinx body.
I examine the production of /s/ amongst four Cuban-American drag queens that perform primarily in Wynwood, an art-oriented neighborhood in Miami known for a variety of queer-friendly venues and a prevalence of Latinx music. Each queen participated in sociolinguistic interviews in English and Spanish while in drag, preparing for a digital performance. The interviews were recorded, and the center of gravity and skewness were calculated for each extracted token of /s/ presented during the exchanges. The measurements were taken from spectral slices of each token of /s/ at the consonant’s midpoint (Hazenberg 2012) as determined by analysis on Praat (Boersma & Weenink 2019).
Arguing that drag is a discursive space (Rodríguez 2003) to negotiate aspects of ethnoracial and gendered identity, I demonstrate that Latinx queens in Miami navigate the acoustic production of /s/ via a process of disidentification (Muñoz 1999). The emergence of a retracted or fronted /s/ is dependent on moments in discourse referencing alignment, either with the aesthetic style of Wynwood drag related to the racialized chonga persona (Hernandez 2020), or the normative constructs of femininity that are intimately connected to whiteness. All but one queen demonstrate average center of gravity values below 7,000 Hz, well within the range established by Flipsen et al. (1999) as typically masculine, raising questions about how queer of color subjects fit into accounts of gendered variation. Additionally, /s/ productions pattern similarly across English and Spanish, providing evidence that speakers in bilingual contexts utilize sociophonetic variables cross-linguistically.
Presenter Contact
cmend116@fiu.edu
Di/s/identity and Cross-Modal Negotiation of Race and Gender: Dynamics of /s/ Production in Miami Latinx Drag
Miami Latinx Drag”
Sociophonetic work on the production of /s/ has shown an indexical link between feminine gender expression and higher centers of gravity and negative spectral skew, corresponding to a fronted articulation of [s+] (Hazenberg 2012; Podesva and Van Hofwegen 2014). In perception studies, speakers also have linked [s+] with femme-coded speech, corresponding to a deviation from heteronormative expectations of masculinity. However, the indexical associations of fronted /s/ have been shown to differ depending on socioethnic context (Pharao et al. 2014). This work adds to the literature on the use of /s/ in communities of drag queens (Calder 2019) by demonstrating how its gendered associations get mediated and complicated by the Latinx body.
I examine the production of /s/ amongst four Cuban-American drag queens that perform primarily in Wynwood, an art-oriented neighborhood in Miami known for a variety of queer-friendly venues and a prevalence of Latinx music. Each queen participated in sociolinguistic interviews in English and Spanish while in drag, preparing for a digital performance. The interviews were recorded, and the center of gravity and skewness were calculated for each extracted token of /s/ presented during the exchanges. The measurements were taken from spectral slices of each token of /s/ at the consonant’s midpoint (Hazenberg 2012) as determined by analysis on Praat (Boersma & Weenink 2019).
Arguing that drag is a discursive space (Rodríguez 2003) to negotiate aspects of ethnoracial and gendered identity, I demonstrate that Latinx queens in Miami navigate the acoustic production of /s/ via a process of disidentification (Muñoz 1999). The emergence of a retracted or fronted /s/ is dependent on moments in discourse referencing alignment, either with the aesthetic style of Wynwood drag related to the racialized chonga persona (Hernandez 2020), or the normative constructs of femininity that are intimately connected to whiteness. All but one queen demonstrate average center of gravity values below 7,000 Hz, well within the range established by Flipsen et al. (1999) as typically masculine, raising questions about how queer of color subjects fit into accounts of gendered variation. Additionally, /s/ productions pattern similarly across English and Spanish, providing evidence that speakers in bilingual contexts utilize sociophonetic variables cross-linguistically.
https://digitalcommons.ciis.edu/lavlang/2021/saturday/28
