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‘The fact they knew before I did upset me most’: Essentialism and normativity in lesbian and gay youths’ coming out stories

Jones, Lucy

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Abstract

This article demonstrates, via discourse analysis of a group of young gay and lesbian people's coming out stories, the salience of essentialist ideologies on their identity construction. The study reveals underlying normative assumptions in the young people's narratives, including those associated with binary gender and innate sexual desire, which they employ in order to construct a culturally authentic sexual identity. Through close sociolinguistic analysis of interactions, it is shown how identity construction is directly influenced by broader ideologies. The analysis provides evidence of the continued prevalence of heteronormativity and homonormativity as key influences in young queer people's identity work.

Citation

Jones, L. (2020). ‘The fact they knew before I did upset me most’: Essentialism and normativity in lesbian and gay youths’ coming out stories. Sexualities, 23(4), 497-515. https://doi.org/10.1177/1363460719830343

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Dec 22, 2018
Online Publication Date Apr 4, 2019
Publication Date Jun 1, 2020
Deposit Date Jan 3, 2019
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal Sexualities
Print ISSN 1363-4607
Electronic ISSN 1461-7382
Publisher SAGE Publications
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 23
Issue 4
Pages 497-515
DOI https://doi.org/10.1177/1363460719830343
Keywords normativity; youth; identity; authentication; discourse analysis
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1441989
Publisher URL https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1363460719830343

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