Jamie Takaoka

I’ve always been in love with language. I’ve been telling stories my whole life, from making accordion storybooks out of fanfold paper as a kid, to doing a creative writing degree at the University of Victoria.

One of my biggest criticisms as a writer was my style of narration. I was constantly critiqued for not gendering my narrators while my narration was “too masculine” or “too feminine” voiced. Why did it matter so much? I just wanted my narrator to be a human without being limited to male or female. If I only knew there would be language to express that sentiment developing over the next few years… I was just a couple years too early.

As a queer non-binary person, most of my English LGBTQ+ education happened online. I connected with others to find support and validation, but most importantly, I learned how to talk about my identity. Through learning this new language, I became curious how gendered languages, particularly French, approach and talk about people like me without masculinizing or feminizing. Was it even possible?

I hope to examine how LGBTQ+ millennials and zoomers (Gen Z) are inventing new grammar and vocabulary to overcome heteronormative language barriers and how the internet is revolutionizing the sociolinguistics within the LGBTQ+ communities in English and French.

Area(s) of Interest:

• LGBTQ+
• lavender linguistics
• genre studies
• social media
• language identity