Whose line is it anyway?

Abstract

Abstract Pride marches are increasingly common in the 'global South' and can be seen as signs of progress towards greater social acceptance of sexual minorities. Such movements often appropriate and mimic semiotic symbols and discursive frames visible in Pride movements in countries in the North, such as rainbow flags and the discourse of human rights. However, there is also a degree of recontextualisation of these symbols and frames in order to deal with specific local social, political, cultural and economic contexts. Though at different 'stages' of acceptance of non-heteronormative lifestyles, India and South Africa offer fruitful sites for comparative, qualitative research. In analysing the language of print media as a way of gauging how Pride movements are discursively constructed, the paper focuses on nominational and predicational strategies (Reisigl and Wodak 2001) to critically analyse actor representations in a sample of articles from national newspapers from each country.