Rezenet Moges-Riedel, Ed.D, is Assistant Professor and serves as a Co-Assistant Director of the ASL Linguistics and Deaf Cultures program at California State University, Long Beach. Her recent work focuses on intersectional experiences and retention of Deaf Faculty of Color, working at postsecondary institutions. Her research topics are heavily shaped by critical race theory, which she reframed "White Oralism" and"Black Deaf Gain". Her research interests also encompass in linguistic anthropological issues, such as sign language contact, demissionization, and female masculinity signing styles.

Title:
Gender non-conforming signing styles of female-bodied signers: A sociolinguistic study

Abstract:
This talk will demonstrate how the existence of diverse types of masculinity enables the plurality of gender identities, whether intentionally or unintentionally adopted. The analysis will reveal that the theorization of gender (Butler 1993) is far from simplistic, especially when its performance involves the intersection of bodily movements and signed languages.

From the past research (Moges 2020), the masculine signing styles have been identified from 5 participants who are Deaf female-bodied masculine women, located in Southern California. Those research findings contribute a critical insight about embodiment for studies of both sign language and gesture, given how spatial information may involve gender ideologies such as dominance and intimidation. In ASL, the stance tends to be performed as an over-assertion of one’s confidence, which reflects hypermasculinity.

This talk will follow up with the gender markings of masculine signing styles by highlighting some selections from internet video data. The signing models in these videos are identified as “studs” which are cisgender butch lesbians, heavily influenced from Black and hip-hop cultures. A video composition of 27 self-identified studs from different cities in the U.S offer us a glimpse of a rich variety of sociolinguistic and gendered data. Findings like these expand our awareness about the registry of masculine (and feminine) embodiments across the country. In addition, this information can assist ASL learners to understand how linguistic styles allow the gender binary (and beyond) to materialize in the visual-spatial modality.