Contesting Hegemonic Gender and Sexuality Discourses on the Web : Latvian and Polish Discourses of Gender Dissidents

Abstract

Embedded in the framework of positive discourse analysis (PDA), this article investigates the discourse of gender dissidents using the example of Latvian and Polish LGBTQ and feminist blogs. It introduces the distinction between narrative and argumentative blogs, the former representing two types of discourse (normalizing and celebratory) and the latter making use of four different strategies of challenging mainstream frames (inversion, complexification, partial reframing and radical reframing), in their ironic and non-ironic variants. The discussion focuses on the latter. The article argues that the discourse of dissidents may be conceptualized in terms of responding to previously raised hegemonic/mainstream validity claims. Any text belonging to the gender dissident discourse is more or less explicitly positioned with regard to the claims of hetero-normativity and/or male dominance (patriarchy). A claim may be accepted, rejected, reversed, built upon, extended or reclaimed. On the basis of a qualitative analysis of 30 Polish and 19 Latvian LGBTQ/feminist blogs, the article revises some theoretical and methodological assumptions made in previous works, as well as suggests more general conclusions pertaining to the social media discourse of gender dissidents in Latvia and Poland.