Viewing Gender and Sexuality Through the Thai Language

On October 19, 2021, Dr. Pavadee Saisuwan, Assistant Professor at the Department of Linguistics and Southeast Asian Linguistics Research Unit, Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand discussed the relationship between the Thai language, gender and sexuality, and will demonstrate their role in reflecting and constructing gender and sexual identities in Thai society.

The constellation of gender and sexual categories in Thai society is complicated. One of the ways to understand the complexity is through the Thai language. Linguistic labels and expressions in Thai are employed to classify and portray people of different gender and sexual identities, and construct the stereotypical discourse about them. Various linguistic resources including pronouns and in-group language are significant to gender and sexual identities in Thai society.

View the recording of the talk in the link below.

Viewing gender and sexuality through the Thai language

This talk was organized by Diana Carter as part of the Inclusive Languages project, and made possible with the support of the Department of Languages and World Literatures.