Performativity, Intertextuality, and Social Change: An Ethnographic Analysis of Taiwanese Gay Personal Ads

Abstract

Based on in-depth conversations with those who have actively been involved in the process of producing and responding to gay personal ads, this paper attempts to challenge the earlier content-centered and socio-psychological analyses concerning gay personals. In addition to analyzing elicited historical testimonials (the personal ads published in print), I conducted in-depth interviews with twenty-two Taiwanese gay men who actively posted and/or responded to gay personal ads. In my interviews it soon became evident that the notion of intertexuality and multiple levels of linguistic functions worked together to facilitate the linguistic performance in gay communication, but that the respective importance of these was changed by the transition from print to digital media.