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“You are a man!”

A critical discourse analysis of public opinion on trans identities in Nigeria

ORCiD logo with link | Bamidele Olumilua University of Education, Science and Technology, Nigeria | Universität Münster, Germany
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Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Open Access publication of this article was funded through a Transformative Agreement with University of Münster.

Published online: 2 September 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlac.00137.oye
Abstract
Despite the growing visibility of transgender individuals globally, Nigeria remains a context marked by conservative social norms and legal restrictions against gender non-conformity. Previous studies on the linguistic construction of sexual minorities in the Nigerian context have mainly focused on gay men and lesbian women, without adequate attention being paid to how trans people are represented. This study, however, considers the discourse surrounding trans identities via a specific case study: a Nigerian social media influencer and trans woman, Bobrisky, whose win as the best-dressed female at a movie premiere in March 2024 led to widespread media discourse. Through the analysis of Facebook posts, this study employs van Dijk’s social cognition approach to Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to examine public opinion about Bobrisky’s award, shedding light on the ideologies of Nigerians towards gender identity, social perceptions, and cultural attitudes. The analysis found that linguistic and discursive strategies are employed in public discourses on Bobrisky to reinforce prevailing stereotypes and stigmas surrounding transgender identity. The discourses on Bobrisky typically reproduce cisnormative assumptions about binary sex, and that implicitly and explicitly transphobic language is often used to frame trans identities as unacceptable. The study contributes to a deeper understanding of the social construction of gender and the challenges faced by transgender individuals in Nigeria.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Literature review
  • 3.Methodology
    • 3.1Data
    • 3.2Theoretical framework
    • 3.3Procedure of analysis
  • 4.Data analysis
    • 4.1“You are a man!” Insistence on the social actor’s male identity
    • 4.2Bobrisky as challenging the given order: Invocations of nature and biology
    • 4.3.Bobrisky as challenging religious values
    • 4.4Bobrisky’s perceived dual identity
    • 4.5Pathologizing transgender identity
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Note
  • References
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