Metaphors and Social Generational Change in Discourse About Same-Sex Marriage in the US

• In Event: Love, Same-Sex Marriage, Story-Telling, and Sleeping Across the Lifespan

Abstract

Public opinion about same-sex marriage in the U.S. has liberalized rapidly, exhibiting both cohort and period effects. This pattern suggests social generational change is occurring, but scholars have not identified the cultural reasons for the shift. In an analysis of discourse of two cohorts of Midwestern Americans, I show that informants rely on two contrasting sets of metaphors to talk about homosexuality and to justify opinions about same-sex marriage. One set of metaphors—comparing homosexuality to race and heterosexuality—defines homosexuality as identity, while the other set of metaphors—of lifestyle, nature, invisibility, and business—defines homosexuality as behavior. I interpret these metaphors as manifestations of social generational change because of the periods in which the two cohorts came of age. I argue that metaphor analysis allows scholars to measure social generational change in implicit worldviews, in figurative language, and among groups who do not collectively identify as generations.

Author

• Peter Hart-Brinson, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire