Queer skin, straight masks: same-sex weddings and the discursive construction of identities and affects on a South African website

Abstract

This article showcases an exploratory study of the website of a Cape Town-based company specialising in arranging same-sex weddings. Informed by queer theory, the article deconstructs the discursive strategies – both linguistic and visual – through which same-sex weddings, and the affects attached to them, are represented on the website. Essentially the argument is that the identitarian and affective constructions on this website are not so radically anti-normative, but are a ‘homo’ version of a well-established heterosexual normality. Same-sex couples who make the choice to get married are portrayed as the epitome of a responsible lifestyle, whereas those who do not are constructed by implication/omission as immoral and irresponsible. Moreover, the queer skin under the otherwise straight masks remains predominantly white. On a more theoretical level, the article argues for an affective turn in the study of consumerism, culture and media in South Africa in order to appreciate how some emotions (but not others) are attached to social class, race, gender and sexuality for marketing purposes.

Keywords:

• affect
• homonormativity
• love
• multimodality
• queer
• race
• same-sex weddings

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Tommaso M. Milani

Tommaso Milani is Associate Professor of Linguistics and Head of Department at the University of the Witwatersrand. [email protected]

Brandon Wolff

Brandon Wolff is an MA candidate in the Department of Linguistics, University of the Witwatersrand. [email protected]