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Abstract

Despite the growing visibility of transgender individuals globally, Nigeria remains a context marked by conservative social norms and legal restrictions against gender non-conformity. Previous studies on the linguistic construction of sexual minorities in the Nigerian context have mainly focused on gay men and lesbian women, without adequate attention being paid to how trans people are represented. This study, however, considers the discourse surrounding trans identities via a specific case study: a Nigerian social media influencer and trans woman, Bobrisky, whose win as the best-dressed female at a movie premiere in March 2024 led to widespread media discourse. Through the analysis of Facebook posts, this study employs van Dijk’s social cognition approach to Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to examine public opinion about Bobrisky’s award, shedding light on the ideologies of Nigerians towards gender identity, social perceptions, and cultural attitudes. The analysis found that linguistic and discursive strategies are employed in public discourses on Bobrisky to reinforce prevailing stereotypes and stigmas surrounding transgender identity. The discourses on Bobrisky typically reproduce cisnormative assumptions about binary sex, and that implicitly and explicitly transphobic language is often used to frame trans identities as unacceptable. The study contributes to a deeper understanding of the social construction of gender and the challenges faced by transgender individuals in Nigeria.

© John Benjamins Publishing Company
Available under the CC BY 4.0 license.
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2025-09-02
2026-05-14

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/content/journals/10.1075/jlac.00137.oye
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“You are a man!”
John Benjamins ; https://doi.org/10.1075/jlac.00137.oye
/content/journals/10.1075/jlac.00137.oye
/content/journals/10.1075/jlac.00137.oye
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  • Article Type: Research Article
Keywords: gender identity ; public opinion ; Critical Discourse Analysis ; transgender people in Nigeria ; social media discourse

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