Do Homophobic Slurs Reinforce Heteronormativity? A Critical Discourse Analysis of Homophobic Slurs and Epithets in Film

Abstract

Homophobic slurs can reinforce the hegemonic view of heteronormativity, namelythat heterosexuality is the preferable sexuality (Peake, 2013). The aim of this study was toexamine whether a societal heteronormative ideal is strengthened or created by the presenceof homophobic slurs in film scenes, and also whether or not this has changed over time. Thestudy was made by examining scenes from four movies from four different decades, all ofwhich contained homophobic slurs. The study used a combination of the multimodalapproach to Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) known as dispositive analysis and SegmentedFilm Discourse Representation Structures (SFDRS) to analyze the discourse of the filmscenes. Results indicate that the earlier films from 1987 and 1995 present homophobic slurs inways that strengthen heteronormativity to a higher extent than the later films from 2006 and2015. This study could contribute to understanding how the use of homophobic slurs impact ahegemonic heteronormative ideal.