‘Now everybody can wear a skirt’: Linguistic constructions of non-heteronormativity at Eurovision Song Contest press conferences

Abstract

This article provides an ethnographically-based, in-depth discourse analysis of linguistic constructions of non-heteronormativity at Eurovision Song Contest press conferences. Contexts of high national salience have been found to largely support or even promote heteronormative discourses. The present study, by contrast, sets out to look at the construction of sexuality in a transnational community of practice of high European salience, in which macro-level heteronormativity has to face greater competition from the non-heteronormativity of the local context. The analysis identifies the following patterns of non-heteronormative construction: non-heteronormative talk about love song lyrics and performances, the construction of male same-sex desire, and the challenging of dominant gender discourses. Finally, it is argued that the European transnationalism of the context causes a normative shift from (nationally associated) heteronormativity to an expectation that non-heterosexual identities and desires be met with greater tolerance.