Cover not available

Article published In: Journal of Language and Sexuality
Vol. 12:2 (2023) ► pp.227–257

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload EPUB
authorization required

A corpus-based discourse analysis of transgender labels in the Spanish-speaking press

ORCiD logo with link | University of North Carolina at Charlotte, USA
 | University of North Carolina at Charlotte, USA
Published online: 13 July 2023
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/jls.21023.gar
Abstract
Over the last two decades, there has been an increasing coverage of transgender people in Latin American and Spanish media. However, there are very few research studies that thoroughly examine the increasing use of terms such as transgender “transgénero” and trans in Spanish-speaking press. This contribution studies the linguistic representation of transgender people in Spanish-speaking quality press produced in Colombia and Spain. Within the framework of Queer Linguistics and Corpus-based Discourse Analysis, this article explores the linguistic choices employed by the Spanish-speaking press to name transgender people and examines the main differences in the linguistic choices made by newspapers in the two countries. Unlike in English, the findings suggest that trans and transexual are the most commonly used labels in Spanish. Although the semantic categories of representation are seen to differ between the two countries, the linguistic choices observed seem to be closely linked to sociopolitical and ideological preferences.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical framework
    • 2.1Queer Linguistics: Cis-heteronormativity in the press
    • 2.2Trans representation: Bodies that matter on the media
  • 3.Methodology
    • 3.1Corpus description and compilation
    • 3.2Procedure and design
  • 4.Results: Frequencies, concordances and collocations
    • 4.1Frequencies and concordances in identity labels in Colombian and Spanish press
    • 4.2Collocations in transgender labels
  • 5.Concluding remarks
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • References
References (57)
References
Acosta Pilco, Rick Martin. 2018. Representaciones de personas transexuales y transgénero en la prensa digital peruana: Entre lo económico, lo cultural y lo representativo. Revista Comunicación y Género 2(1): 227–242. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Aizura, Aren Z. 2014. Trans feminine value, racialized others and the limits of necropolitics. In Queer Necropolitics, Jin Haritaworn, Adi Kuntsman & Silvia Posocco (eds), 129–147. New York: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Åkerlund, Mathilda. 2019. Representations of trans people in Swedish newspapers. Journalism Studies 20(9): 1319–1338. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Alonso González, Marián. 2015. Influencias políticas y empresariales en la prensa española: El cambio de dirección en El País. Revista de Comunicación de la SEECI 381(nov): 182–203. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Antón, Antonio. 2019. La base social de progreso: Progresista, feminista, ecologista y de izquierdas. Nuevatribuna.es. 〈[URL]〉 (March 20, 2022)
Asociacion Colombiana de Investigación de Medios. 2020. Estudio General de Medios (EGM). Bogotá: Asociacion Colombiana de Investigación de Medios.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Baker, Paul. 2014. Bad wigs and screaming mimis: Using corpus-assisted techniques to carry out critical discourse analysis of the representation of trans people in the British press. In Contemporary Critical Discourse Studies, Chris Hart & Piotr Cap (eds), 211–235. London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Baker, Paul, Gabrielatos, Costas, KhosraviNik, Majid, Krzyżanowski, Michał, McEnery, Tony & Wodak, Ruth. 2008. A useful methodological synergy? Combining Critical Discourse Analysis and Corpus Linguistics to examine discourses of refugees and asylum seekers in the UK press. Discourse and Society 19(3): 273–306. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Baril, Alexandre. 2016. “Doctor, am I an anglophone trapped in a francophone body?” An intersectional analysis of trans-crip-t time in ableist, cisnormative, anglonormative societies. Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies 1(2): 155–172. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Barker-Plummer, Bernadette. 2013. Fixing Gwen: News and the mediation of (trans)gender challenges. Feminist Media Studies 13(4): 710–724. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bednarek, Monika & Caple, Helen. 2012. New Discourse. New York: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Billard, Thomas, Abbot, Traci, Haimson, Oliver, Whipple, Kelsey, Brooks, Stephenson & Zhang Erique. 2020. Rethinking (and retheorizing) transgender media representation: A roundtable discussion. International Journal of Communication 141: 4494–4507.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Billard, Thomas & Zhang, Erique. 2022. Toward a transgender critique of media representation. Journal of Cinema and Media Studies 61(2): 194–199. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Butler, Judith. 1990. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ciszek, Erica, Haven, Paxton & Logan, Nneka. 2021. Amplification and the limits of visibility: Complication strategies of trans voice and representations on social media. News Media & Society 10(2): 1–21. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Colette Capuzza, Jaime. 2015. Who defines gender diversity? Sourcing routines and representation in mainstream U.S. news stories about transgenderism. International Journal of Transgenderism 15(3–4): 115–128. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Correa Montoya, Guillermo. 2016. De locas bobas a las falsas mujeres: El personaje transgénero en la prensa antioqueña, 1980–1980. Tabula Rasa 291: 315–343.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fantinuoli, Claudio & Zanettin, Federico. 2015. Creating and using multilingual corpora in translation studies. In New Directions in Corpus-Based Translation Studies, Claudio Fantinuoli & Federico Zanettin (eds), 1–10. Berlin: Language Science Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ferraresi, Adriano. 2018. Who writes the story matters: Transgender identity through the lens of citizen journalism. In Miss Man? Languaging Gendered Bodies, Giuseppe Balirano & Oriana Palusci (eds), 190–215: Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
García León, Javier E. 2019. Documentando la producción audiovisual transloca colombiana: Apuntes críticos sobre la representación trans. Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies 44(3): 261–280.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2021. Espectáculo, Normalización y Representaciones Otras: Las Personas Transgénero en la Prensa y el Cine de Colombia y Venezuela. Berlin: Peter Lang. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gossett, Reina, Stanley, Eric A. & Burton, Johanna (eds). 2017. Trap Door: Trans Cultural Production and the Politics of Visibility. Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Halberstam, Jack. 2005. In a Queer Time and Place: Transgender Bodies, Subcultural Lives. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Horak, Laura. 2014. Trans on YouTube: Intimacy, visibility, temporality. TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly 1(4): 572–585. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Irving, Dan. 2012. Elusive subjects: Notes on the relationship between critical political economy and trans studies. In Transfeminist Perspectives In and Beyond Transgender and Gender Studies, Anne Enke (ed), 153–169. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
La Fountain-Stokes, Lawrence. 2010. Translocas: Migration, homosexuality, and transvestism in recent Puerto Rican performance. Emisférica 8(1). 〈[URL]〉 (May 7, 2023)
Lewis, Vek. 2010. Crossing Sex and Gender in Latin America. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Llorent, Vicente. 2011. El papel educativo de la prensa digital ante la integración de los inmigrantes en España: elmundo.es y elpais.com. Comunicar, Revista Científica de Educomunicación 381: 139–146.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Marini, Lorenzo, Medina-Bravo, Pilar & Alsina, Miquel Rodrigo. 2010. Prensa online y transexualidad: Análisis de la cobertura periodística del caso Thomas Beatie. Estudios sobre el Mensaje Periodístico 16(2): 291–306.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McEnery, Tony & Wilson, Andrew. 2001. Corpus Linguistics: An Introduction. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mikhailov, Mikhail & Cooper, Robert. 2016. Corpus Linguistics for Translation and Contrastive Studies: A Guide for Research. London: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Morales Domínguez, Lucas. 2017. Crisis económica y medios de comunicación: Análisis comparativo de la producción infográfica en las ediciones digitales de El País y El Mundo durante el año 2007 y 2013. Estudios sobre el Mensaje Periodístico 23(2): 925–936. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Moreno Espinosa, Pastora. 2017. Periodismo digital: Paradigma del nuevo panorama interactivo. Estudios sobre el Mensaje Periodístico 23(2): 1299–1317. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Motschenbacher, Heiko & Martin Stegu. 2013. Queer linguistic approaches to discourse. Discourse & Society 24(5): 519–535. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mouka, Effie, Saridakis, Ioannis E. & Fotopoulou, Angeliki. 2015. Racism goes to the movies: A corpus-driven study of cross-linguistic racist discourse annotation and translation analysis. In New Directions in Corpus-Based Translation Studies, Claudio Fantinuoli & Federico Zanettin (eds), 35–70. Berlin: Language Science Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Namaste, Viviane. 2011. Sex Change, Social Change: Reflections on Identity, Institutions, and Imperialism. 2nd edition. Toronto: Canadian Scholars Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Phillips, John. 2006. Transgender on the Screen. New York: Macmillan. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pineda, Antonio, Bellido-Pérez, Elena & Sánchez-Gutiérrez, Bianca. 2022. Expanding ideologies in the press: Feminist and LGBT-related issues in Spanish online-only opinion journalism. Feminist Media Studies 22(1): 83–103. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Preciado, Paul. 2003. Multitudes queer: Notas para una política de los anormales. Multitudes 121: 157–166. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rivero, Ángel. 2016. Liberalismo progresista. In Ideologías y Movimientos Políticos Contemporáneos, Joan Antón Mellón & Xavier Torrens (eds), 61–75. Madrid: Tecnos.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ryan, Joelle. 2009. Reel Gender: Examining the Politics of Trans Images in Film and Media. (Unpublished) PhD dissertation, Bowling Green State University.
Saldanha, Gabriela & O’Brien, Sharon. 2014. Research Methodologies in Translation Studies. London: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Serano, Julia. 2013. Excluded: Making Feminist and Queer Movements More Inclusive. Berkeley: Seal Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sinclair, John M. (ed). 1987. Looking Up: An Account of the COBUILD Project in Lexical Computing and the Development of the Collins COBUILD English Language Dictionary. London: Collins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Skidmore, Emily. 2011. Constructing the ‘good transsexual’: Christine Jorgensen, whiteness, and heteronormativity in the mid-twentieth-century Press. Feminist Studies 37(2): 270–300. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Spade, Dean. 2015. Normal Life Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics, and the Limits of Law. Durham: Duke University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stryker, Susan. 2008. Transgender History. Berkeley: Seal Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vázquez Bermúdez, Miguel Ángel. 2006. Los medios toman partido. Ámbitos 151: 257–267. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wilkinson, Mark. 2019. ‘Bisexual oysters’: A diachronic corpus-based critical discourse analysis of bisexual representation in The Times between 1957 and 2017. Discourse & Communication 13(2): 249–267. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zimman, Lal. 2016. Agency and the gendered voice: Metalinguistic rejections of vocal masculinization among female-to-male transgender speakers. In Awareness and Control in Sociolinguistic Research, Anna Babel (ed), 228–252. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2017. Gender as stylistic bricolage: Transmasculine voices and the relationship between fundamental frequency and /s/. Language in Society 46(3): 339–370. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zimman, Lal & Hayworth, Will. 2019. Lexical change as sociopolitical change in trans and cis identity labels: New methods for the corpus analysis of internet data. University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics 25(2): 1–10.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zubillaga, Naroa, Sanz, Zuriñe & Uribarri, Ibon. 2015. Building a trilingual parallel corpus to analyse literary translations from German into Basque. In New Directions in Corpus-Based Translation Studies, Claudio Fantinuoli & Federico Zanettin (eds), 35–70. Berlin: Language Science Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (3)

Cited by three other publications

García León, David L., Javier E. García León & Mónica Rodríguez-Castro
2025. Linguistic labels of disabled people in Colombian news outlets. Spanish in Context DOI logo
Kirey-Sitnikova, Yana
2025. Diachronic variation in the use of terms denoting transgender and non-binary people in Russian. Russian Linguistics 49:1 DOI logo
Nguyen, Minh Hieu & Brian Clancy
2025. Representations of LGBT people in Vietnamese online newspapers: A corpus-assisted critical discourse study. Discourse & Society DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 13 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue