CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2023
| Author | Yassine, Salma |
|---|---|
| Title | Fuck me bil 'Arabi: The Sexed Arabic Sociolinguistics of Queer Women in Lebanon |
| Summary | This is a study about language, sex, and the self at the intersection of queerness. This thesis is an interdisciplinary study that is built on sociolinguistic analysis, coupled with data extracted from 14 ethnographic online interviews with queer women from Lebanon. Throughout this thesis, I rely on queer and feminist theories to build and support my analysis. I argue that there is an entrenched interconnectedness between sex, Colloquial Arabic, and the queer Arab self. Within an overarching frame of analysis, I argue that sexed Arabic is a subversive tool of resistance for some queer women in Lebanon, and that sexed Arabic is a site of love, pleasure, and productive pain through which queer women in Lebanon reconfigure, reclaim, and subvert hegemonic structures of power. Therefore, sexed Arabic is a focal point of catharsis that is integral to the formation and articulation of a queer Arab self in the Lebanese context. At the intersection of queerness, sociolinguistics, and the self vis-à-vis the intersection of pain, pleasure, and power, sexed Arabic is rendered a site of queer catharsis for many queer women in Lebanon. Those intersections are heightened within the dynamic of sexual Bondage, Discipline (or Dominance), Sadism (or Submission), and Masochism; therefore, the unique dynamics of power exchange and pain interplay within sexual BDSM render it a radical method of subversion through which derogatory discourses of sexed Arabic are reclaimed with pleasure. Keywords: Queer Sex – Language – Lebanon – Arab – BDSM – Pleasure – Pain – Power. |
| Supervisor | Supervisors: Jones-Gailani, Nadia and Qubaiova, Adriana / Second Reader: Loney, Hannah Jane |
| Department | Gender Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2023/yassine_salma.pdf |
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