Las palabras y el sexo. La construcción discursiva de la sexualidad en el Chat

Abstract

Among the different discursive genres appearing from the computer chatting, there is one defined by the situation in which it takes place: between people that don’t know each other, in spaces with clear boundaries (chat rooms) that, although they propose different topics (age, gender, music, etc.) all of them finally lead to the sex topic. Here, the use of language is sexually performative. Specific conditions of computer chat (anonymity, generic intertextuality and the double mediation –computer and writing–) activate frames which justify sex as an issue. This work aims to analyze the way people chat about sex, how stereotypes are reproduced and restituted, which circulation, at least in the public space, is not only rejected but also considered politically incorrect. The theoretical-methodological frame is the Critical Discourse Analysis (Fairclough, 1995 and 2000, and van Dijk, 1998).