"Whatever (Neck Roll, Eye Roll, Teeth Suck)": The Situated Coproduction of Social Categories and Identities through Stancetaking and Transmodal Stylization

• Published in: Journal of linguistic anthropology Vol. 20; no. 1; pp. 179 - 194
• Main Authors: Goodwin, Marjorie Harness, Alim, H. Samy
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Malden, USA Blackwell Publishing Inc 01.06.2010; Wiley Periodicals, Inc; Blackwell Publishing Ltd
• Subjects: African Americans; Aggressiveness; Class; Classroom communication; Communication; Cultural factors; Educational activities; Ethnography; Females; Gender; Gender identity; Gestures; Ghettos; Girls; Insults; Linguistic anthropology; Oral cavity; Peer groups; Peer relationships; Race; Social classes; Social identity; Social interaction; Sociolinguistics; Speech; Teenagers; U.S.A
• ISSN: 1055-1360; 1548-1395
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1548-1395.2010.01056.x

This article examines the argumentative talk of a preadolescent girls' peer group demonstrating both the co-construction of microinteractional identities as well as the coproduction of macro-social identity categories, such as race, class, and gender. Activities of social aggression are performed through embodied styling and stancetaking in the midst of oppositional moves towards a "tagalong" girl. Through transmodal stylization girls openly mock an African American working-class girl using talk associated with wealthy white "Valley Girls," while simultaneously producing gestures associated with working-class black "Ghetto Girls." Through the use of different communicative modalities girls simultaneously index multiple culturally salient representations.