Abstract
Gendered analyses of call center work and communication have mostly focused on the link between feminization and the call center industry in terms of, first, the greater number of female call center workers vis-à-vis male ones who engage in frontline customer service work in both the source countries and offshore locations (Belt 2002; Belt et al. 2000; Breathnach 2002; Elmoudden 2005; Fernandez & Sosa 2005); and, second, what Cameron (2000a, 2000b) characterizes as the feminized speech style that call center workers are required to use. Both are definitely useful ways of examining the issue of gender in the call centers. However, they are not enough to account for what seems like a unique development taking place in the Philippine offshore situation: the great—and increasing—number of gay men in the industry (Salonga 2010; also see Bolton 2010).1 Given the call center data in most locations, both in the source countries like the United States and the United Kingdom, and offshore like India, this trend or phenomenon seems to be taking place only in the Philippines.
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© 2015 Aileen O. Salonga
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Salonga, A.O. (2015). Performing Gayness and English in an Offshore Call Center Industry. In: Tupas, R. (eds) Unequal Englishes. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137461223_8
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