Linguistic Othering of Transgender Communities: A Pakistani Metrolinguistic Analysis
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47067/ramss.v9i1.610Keywords:
Transgender Communities, Metrolinguistics, Linguistic Othering, Pakistani Metropolitan Media, Urban Discourse, Representation, Media Language, Identity ConstructionAbstract
This study investigates how Pakistani metropolitan media linguistically construct the othering of transgender communities within urban discourse. Using a metrolinguistic framework informed by the work of Alastair Pennycook and Emi Otsuji, the research analysed televised discussions, digital commentary programs and online news reports produced in cities such as Karachi and Lahore. Results indicated that there were consistent lexical patterns that diminished transgender identity to generic or derogatory terms, judgmental intonations that positioned transgender people as funny, weird or pitiable, and narrative patterns that recurrently placed transgender people in marginal urban locations. All these linguistic strategies strengthened symbolic distance and naturalised social inequality and otherness. The analysis also found new counter-narratives, namely in interviews with such figures as Marvia Malik, where respectful naming, the use of inclusive pronouns and equal treatment enabled transgender speakers to confront degrading representations and othering. . The study concludes that metropolitan media significantly shape public attitudes and behaviours, placing emphasis on the need for more inclusive linguistic practices within Pakistani media discourses.
References
Ahmed, A. (2024). Beyond the stereotypes: Examining the media representation of minorities and the road to equitable portrayals. Policy Journal of Media Studies, 1(1). [1]
Ahmad, M. W. (2021). A reflective autoethnography about the lives of Pakistani transgender activists. Unpublished MPhil thesis, University of Toronto. [2]
Ali, A., Malik, Q. A., & Fahad, S. (2022). Newspaper representation of transgender in Pakistan: A multimodal analysis. Pakistan Journal of Gender Studies, 22(2). [3]
Arslan, M. Q. (2023). Transgender representation in politics: Paving the way for inclusivity in Pakistan. Pakistan Social Sciences Review, 7(1). [4]
Asghar, S., & Shahzad, S. (2018). Media portrayals of transgender people in Pakistan. Journal of Gender and Social Issues, 17(2).
Awan, M. A. (2018). A critical discourse analysis of news reports on Khwaja Siras in Pakistani newspapers. Unpublished MPhil thesis, Lahore School of Economics. [5]
Awan, M. A. (2023). Constructing subjects that matter: A case of conditional belonging for Pakistani gender diverse people. Gender Work and Organisation, 30(6). [6]
Azhar, S., Ahmad, I., Guzmán Herrera, M. M., & Lerner, R. (2024). I would prefer to be dead than to live this way: Lived experiences of stigma and discrimination against Khwaja Sira in Swat, Pakistan. Global Mental Health, 11. [7]
Batool, S., Arif, A., & Khan, M. (2018). Representation of religious minorities in Pakistani and Indian print media: A comparative analysis. Pakistan Social Sciences Review, 2(1). [8]
Ghauri, M. J., Umber, S., & Haq, A. (2021). Exploring the othering discourse in the Australian press. Journal of Media and Communication, 2(1). [9]
Haladzhuna, Z., Harmatiy, O., Bidzilya, Y., Kunanets, N., & Shunevych, K. (2021). Hate speech in the media towards the representatives of the Roma in Ukraine. CEUR Workshop Proceedings, 2870. [10]
Iftikhar, Y. (2023). Voices of the Khwaja Sira: Navigating trans rights, religion and journalism in Pakistan. Facts and Frictions, 4(2). [11]
Jamal, M. (2024). Malaysia's indigenous community in the media: Deconstructing the rhetoric of othering in discourse. Quest Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, 5(2). [12]
Khan, S. (2016). Khwaja sara hijra and the struggle for rights in Pakistan. In R. B. Davis (Ed.), Gender and justice in South Asia. Routledge. [13]
Kiani, H. B. (2025). Naming the third gender: A feminist critical discourse analysis of cisgender discourse on transgender public figures in Pakistan. Journal of Applied Linguistics and Translation, 9(2). [14]
Malik, Q. A., Ali, A., & Fahad, S. (2022). Newspaper representation of transgender in Pakistan: A multimodal analysis. Pakistan Journal of Gender Studies, 22(2). [3]
Otsuji, E. (2010). Metrolingualism: Fixity, fluidity, and language in flux. International Journal of Multilingualism, 7(3), 240 to 254. [15]
Otsuji, E. (2020). Metrolingualism. In C. A. Chapelle (Ed.), Oxford research encyclopedia of linguistics. Oxford University Press. [16]
Pennycook, A., & Otsuji, E. (2015). Metrolingualism: Language in the city. Routledge. [17]
Saeed, N. (2025). A corpus-based study of hedges and boosters in transgender representation in Pakistani newspaper articles. Wah Academia Journal of Social Sciences, 2(1). [18]
Saeed, N., & Awan, A. S. (2025). Representation of transgender people in American and Pakistani newspaper articles through referential strategies: A corpus-driven critical discourse analysis. Journal of Arts and Linguistics Studies, 3(2), 3043-3071. [19]
Said, E. W. (1978). Orientalism. Pantheon Books. [20]
Sedlakova, R. (2022). Media construction of deviance and othering of the Roma minority in television news discourse. Studies of Politics and Policy, 11(1). [21]
Shahid, F., & Shah, S. K. (2023). Examining the discursive frameworks of transgender issues in Pakistani print media. Russian Law Journal, 11(1), 622-640.
Shah, F. T. (2024). A critical discourse analysis of the Transgender Persons Act and the role of media framing. Muslim Research Journal, 8(2). [22]
Siddique, S., Pasha, S. A., & Sharif, H. (2024). Examining transgender community in Pakistani media: A content analysis of English newspapers. Human Nature Journal of Social Sciences, 5(3), 94-104. [23]
Simon, S. (2016). Review of Metrolingualism: Language in the city. Meta, 61, 178. [24]
Victoria, N. (2023). Language as a source of otherness: Overcoming linguistic exclusion in organisations. Journal of Marketing Management, 39, 17-18. [25]
Zahra, T., & Abbas, A. (2024). Media representation of Pakistani transgender people in newspapers and blogs through corpus approaches. Italian Sociological Review, 14(3), 1087-1106.
Zottola, A. (2018). Transgender identity labels in the British press: A corpus-based discourse analysis. Journal of Language and Sexuality, 7(2), 237 to 262. [26]
