Women & Language invites articles for an upcoming special issue Transcending the Acronym: Genders, Sexes, Sexualities, and Gender Identities Beyond “LGBT.”
Critical studies of gender, sex, sexuality, and gender identity have many goals, and certainly one includes the effort to trouble, interrogate, and upend binaries, dichotomies, and rigid categories—and the naturalization thereof. Despite these underlying theoretical commitments many of us share, research about sexuality and gender identity often subtly reinscribes many of the categories and even binaries it purports to disavow. The ubiquitous initialism LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender), sometimes extended to become more inclusive by adding a Q for “queer” or “questioning” or an A for “ally” or “asexual,” often obscures as much as it clarifies. For instance, the acronym problematically conflates gender identity and sexuality, leading to dubious conclusions in articles that claim to report results about “LGBT” people but have actually only surveyed cisgender gay and lesbian people. The acronym also leaves out a range of sexualities and gender identities, and the ones it represents overemphasize colonized, Western, and White understandings of sexuality and gender identity.
Articles should follow the general guidelines for manuscripts to be submitted to Women & Language but should be submitted by email to Dr. Leland G. Spencer, spencelg[@]miamioh.edu. Inquiries about the issue may be sent to the same email address.
Deadline: January 31, 2018
