ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book presented at the Language and Gender conference held at Loughborough University in May 1992. It argues that the term 'gender' can be usefully employed so that the differences within sexual groupings can be considered, at the same time as retaining the categories male, female, gay, straight and so on as indicators of distinctive oppressions and resistances within language. The book aims to consolidate those dialogues, arguments and debates across disciplines, following in the tradition of feminism and language. Deborah Cameron argues that the lesbian poets use the language of poetry to represent lesbian libidinal difference, sexual identity and lifestyle in their own terms. Barbara Crowther and Dick Leith, in their essay 'Feminism, language and the rhetoric of TV wildlife programmes', investigate the way that both visual and verbal discursive practices can be analysed when examining the rhetoric of television wildlife programmes.
