Zanzibari women’s discursive and sexual agency: Violating gendered speech prohibitions through talk about supernatural sex
Discourse & Society December 17, 2010 DOI: 10.1177/0957926510382841 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Qualitative study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 2 |
| Population | Zanzibari women |
| Citations | 24 |
| Key findings | Argues that Zanzibari women produce resistant discourse about sex and desire, violating hegemonic language ideologies, through talk about spirit-human sex, and that this is shaped by equivocal communication norms, Islamic discretion, and cultural transgressions from spirit possession. |
Abstract
This article analyzes a conversation with two Zanzibari women about sex between humans and spirits. This research demonstrates how they navigate gender-based restrictions on discourse to discuss sex and desire, violating a hegemonic language ideology that would silence them. Whereas previous work has focused on how Swahili women subvert gendered speech prohibitions by nonverbally taking up discourse produced by others, this article examines how they produce resistant discourse themselves. The analysis is contextualized in terms of three social elements that shape women’s talk about (supernatural) sex: (1) a discursive culture that emphasizes equivocal interpersonal communication; (2) a language ideology informed by an Islamic emphasis on discretion; and (3) the extension of cultural transgressions allowed during spirit possession to transgressions during talk about spirit possession and other occult phenomena.