Sexual violence and the creation of an empowered female voice

Authors

  • Cala Ann Zubair SUNY - Buffalo

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/genl.v9i2.17909

Keywords:

gender, youth slang, register, voice, sexual assault, Sri Lanka

Abstract

This paper describes how slang serves as a source of empowerment for a marginalised social group, helping speakers create an inhabitable voice that contests community norms. Within the insular youth community known as the Sinhalese Raggers, females differentiate the terms they use to describe sexual assault from terms used by males. In doing so, they construct a voice in opposition to a male subject they hold responsible for sexual assault. The study of sexual assault slang contributes to recent register studies by exploring register at the community level, providing ethnographic evidence of the social motivations behind non-uniform language use. More broadly, this work documents negotiations between individuals and group collectives – how dominated speakers (female Raggers) exhibit agency through language.

Author Biography

  • Cala Ann Zubair, SUNY - Buffalo

    Cala Zubair’s research is directed towards various sociolinguistic and structural elements of Sinhala language varieties. Her ethnographic studies among Sinhalese youth examine register formation, gendered slang constructions, and language ideology. She also studies Sinhala syntax and semantics, including research on (in)volitive verbs, causative/inchoative alternations, and non-canonically case-marked subjects. Her most recent publications include articles in Gender-Linked Language Variation and Natural Language and Linguistic Theory.

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Published

2015-08-05

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Section

Articles

How to Cite

Zubair, C. A. (2015). Sexual violence and the creation of an empowered female voice. Gender and Language, 9(2), 279–317. https://doi.org/10.1558/genl.v9i2.17909