GAY PERSONAL ADVERTISEMENTS IN MALAYSIA
Authors:
Andrew Yau Hau Tse
Abstract:
This paper scrutinizes the correlation between language, culture, and identity in a corpus of gay personal ads collected from various websites in Malaysia over a period of one year. The gay language is a rumination of marginalization in a wider social scenario. Fairclough’s (1992-93) three dimensional model of critical discourse analysis is recruited to unveil the relationship between text structure, issues of power, and ideology. The findings depicted that at text level, the structural components vary according to race and culture of the authors; at discourse practice, authors aptly voice their opinion in the cultural avenue; finally, at social stratum, the ads echo the racial stereotypes and heterosexist ideology found in the specified culture. Further research is indispensable to explore the gays’ identity and culture in other parts of the world to understand better this socio-linguistic phenomenon.