Do we need Queer Cognitive Linguistics?

Abstract

This article proposes a more inclusive approach to the concept of gender, identity, and non-normativity. Gender is often used in research as a binary category, leading researchers to misrepresent the more complex reality. Taking a more inclusive perspective on how people differ in terms of their body and body perceptions and accepting gender as a fuzzy category make research in linguistics more inclusive in terms of the communities we study and the methodologies we use. Queer Cognitive Linguistics (QCL) proposes a non-reductive approach to language and cognition, recognising the complexity of the human conceptual system. QCL treats universality in human cognition with caution and posits, after Embodied Sociolinguistics, the two-way embodiment, where the interactions between body and language are both bidirectional and intertwined.