A1 Journal article (refereed)
Online discourses of ‘homosexuality’ and religion : The discussion relating to Islam in Finland (2022)

Jantunen, J. H., & Kytölä, S. (2022). Online discourses of ‘homosexuality’ and religion : The discussion relating to Islam in Finland. Journal of Language and Sexuality, 11(1), 31-56. https://doi.org/10.1075/jls.20011.jan

JYU authors or editors

Publication details

All authors or editors: Jantunen, Jarmo Harri; Kytölä, Samu

Journal or series: Journal of Language and Sexuality

ISSN: 2211-3770

eISSN: 2211-3789

Publication year: 2022

Publication date: 11/02/2022

Volume: 11

Issue number: 1

Pages range: 31-56

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company

Publication country: Netherlands

Publication language: English

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/jls.20011.jan

Publication open access: Not open

Publication channel open access: Channel is not openly available

Abstract

This article examines Finnish online forum discussions where religion and discourses of ‘homosexuality’ are connected in various ways. Previous research (e.g. Jantunen 2018a) shows that in Finnish online discussions where sexual minorities are the topic, religion stands out as a significant feature – particularly in discourses on ‘homosexuality’. Via corpus-assisted discourse analysis (CADS), the present study adds to previous knowledge on this subject by qualitatively analyzing the occurrences of certain keywords in the Finnish societal context – one in which immigration and the visibility of both Islam and sexual minorities are perceived to have increased. The analysis found four interrelated key discourses in these online discussions: (1) Islamization as an alleged threat to gay people (in the data: ‘homosexuals’); (2) the alleged indifference/ignorance of people to Islam’s stance against sexual minorities; (3) relativist discourse(s) claiming all fundamentalists to be similar; and (4) othering – including for instance, the verbal stylization of Muslims as being particularly hypersexual.

Keywords: homosexuality; gay men; sexual minorities; religion and religions; Islam; attitudes; online discussion; discourse; discourse analysis; corpus-based research

Free keywords: corpus-assisted discourse analysis; homosexuality; Islam; keyword analysis; online discourses; religion; web forums

Contributing organizations

Ministry reporting: Yes

Preliminary JUFO rating: 1