Feminist rhetoric is a scholarly, multigenre, and multidisciplinary movement and strategy, and a field of study in the Humanities.Jung, Julie. Revisionary Rhetoric, Feminist Pedagogy, and Multigenre Texts. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press. 2005. . It emphasizes the narratives of all demographics, including women and other marginalized groups, into the consideration or practice of rhetoric. Feminist rhetoric does not focus exclusively on the rhetoric of women or feminists but instead prioritizes the feminist principles of inclusivity, community, and equality over the classic, patriarchal model of persuasion that ultimately separates people from their own experience. Seen as the act of producing or the study of feminist discourses, feminist rhetoric emphasizes and supports the lived experiences and histories of all human beings in all manner of experiences. It also redefines traditional delivery sites to include non-traditional locations such as demonstrations, letter writing, and digital processes, and alternative practices such as rhetorical listening and productive silence. Rhetorical feminism is as a set of strategies that expand who can speak, who counts as audience, and how audiences can respond. These set of tactics aim to counter traditional forms of rhetoric, favoring dialogue over monologue and seeking to redefine the way audiences view rhetorical appeals.
Definition and goals
As a group that had been silenced for 2500 years, feminist rhetors began to gain strength with the Second Wave feminism of the 1960s–1970s, particularly through the writing of bell hooks who used common language and personal experiences as the basis for critically examining academic, cultural, and social issues. Rhetorical feminism as an academic discipline began to significantly evolve by the mid-1980s when women in academia challenged the standards of Western rhetorical tradition with feminist ideology. Patricia Bizzell, Karlyn Kohrs Campbell, Lisa Ede, Cheryl Glenn, Shirley Wilson Logan, Andrea Lunsford, and Krista Ratcliffe were all early theorists of feminist rhetoric who made significant advances in the field.
In the mid-1990s, the traditional Aristotelian notion that rhetoric is fundamentally persuasive was questioned when feminist rhetors argued that persuasion reflects a patriarchal bias that simultaneously alienates people from their own experiences, cultures, and communicative practices and exerts power over them. An emphasis on understanding rather than persuasion underpins much of rhetorical feminism, engaging with, collaborating, and listening to the marginalized as equals. By redefining the "dehumanizing" definition of classical persuasive rhetoric, whereby one group's experiences are dominated and devalued by another, more persuasive group, feminist rhetoric seeks to equalize and honor the experiences of all living beings.
Because rhetoric is a cultural artifact reflecting the social values of the society that creates it, the absence of women and other marginalized groups reveals the patriarchal silencing of women's experiences; furthermore, the devaluation of women's traditional depiction and experiences (emotional/passive) contrasts the elevation of men's depiction and experiences (rational/active). Scholars of feminist rhetoric add the stories of women into the history of rhetoric who have been previously overlooked or relegated to second-class status, combine issues in feminism and rhetorical theory, and produce rhetorical criticism from feminist perspectives with the ultimate goal of elevating historically marginalized voices. Feminist rhetorical scholars challenge and redefine the dominant patriarchal narrative, particularly Platonic and Aristotelian classifications and definitions.
Rhetorical feminism aims to cultivate an understanding rather than try to persuade, in turn creating a space for marginalized and minority groups to feel comfortable enough to vocalize various social concerns. Cheryl Glenn, the author of "The Language of rhetorical feminism, anchored in hope" (2020), highlights how President Trump built his campaign around spreading divisive and harmful rhetoric, which unjustly targets the rights of marginalized communities, including Women, Black people, Mexicans, Muslims, Middle eastern, and Chinese individuals. Glenn further explains that rhetorical feminism promotes a more democratic process. This sort of democratic process would allow people to walk through life in a way that closely aligns with their beliefs, question and protest against unjust systems, scrutinize various issues and explore reinvention within oneself as engaged citizens. Glenn describes rhetoric as a tool that can be used to combat divisive argumentative dialogue, thus, replacing hostility with compassion, empathy and awareness. As Glenn explains, rhetoric can be utilized in persuasive and dehumanizing ways rather than be used in more feminist approach which focuses on honoring strength grounded in hope, mutual understanding, and collaboration.
In addition, Glenn also explains that rhetoric is not objective, as many claim it to be. Communicate is shaped by certain powers individuals hold, for example their social hierarchy, their privilege, and the social norms they follow. Rhetoric has always been shaped by the voices of powerful white males who are in respected professions like politics, and business and they have shaped what rhetoric is by naturally being in these positions of power. When we observe women and other minority groups in the same field, they do not receive the same response and attention as their white male counterparts because they are judged for how different their rhetoric is and are often ignored and dismissed. Women tend to be softer and heartfelt while men tend to blunt.
History
In 1973, feminist scholar Karlyn Kohrs Campbell wrote an influential essay, The Rhetoric of Women's Liberation: An Oxymoron, that drew feminists' attention to women's roles as communicators within rhetorical frameworks and to the relevance of feminist theory to the study of rhetoric. Feminist scholar Patricia Bizzell noted in 1992 that the classical canon of rhetoric consists almost entirely of well-educated male authors. In addition, scholars of feminist rhetoric argued that the field itself was suffused with patriarchal values. To address this perceived problem, they made efforts to include women authors in the history of rhetoric, established connections between feminist issues and theories of rhetoric, and wrote rhetorical criticism from feminist perspectives. While these academics were initially inspired by feminist scholarship outside of rhetoric and composition studies, they eventually developed a distinctive school within this tradition.
Following the initial feminist rhetoric movement, the Coalition of Women (later Feminist) Scholars in the History of Rhetoric and Composition was formed in 1988. According to its mission statement, this coalition "fosters inquiry in the histories, theories, and pedagogues of rhetoric and composition" for the "advancement of feminist research". It is composed of teachers and scholars dedicated to promoting the intersectionality of communication and collaboration within feminist rhetoric and research methods. Founding members included Winifred Horner, Jan Swearingen, Nan Johnson, Marjorie Curry Woods, and Kathleen Welch. Contemporary leading scholars include Andrea Lunsford, Jacqueline Jones Royster, Cheryl Glenn, and Shirley Wilson Logan. 1996 brought the publication of Peitho, the coalition's newspaper, published by Susan Jarratt. In present-day feminist rhetoric, a point of emphasis is changing research methods and methodologies to include the discourse of "marginalized Others" such as African American, Chicanx, and Muslim women.
Feminist rhetoric works to expand the rhetorical canon introduced by the Roman orator Cicero in his treatise De Inventione (ca. 50 BCE) and the first century CE Roman rhetorician Quintilian in Institutio Oratoria. The classical rhetorical canon has been the foundation of rhetorical education since its creation. Feminist rhetoric scholars argue that this patriarchal canon and its methods of persuasion exclude valuable forms of public discourse and narrative, and they seek to redefine it accordingly.
Themes
Methodology in rhetoric studies Scholars such as Jessica Enoch and Jaqueline Jones Royster introduced the idea of changing the way research is recognized and constructed. Scholars in rhetoric studies agree there is a plethora of voices and demographics to draw upon for data necessary for research in the field. Researchers suggest this is achieved by asking questions that have never been asked before, recognizing the wealth of materials (or lack thereof) in archives, and expanding the idea of an archive. Rhetorical feminist methodologies avoid reading past texts as reflectons of one's own ideas and instead seek to understand them in their original context, paying attention to how publishing choices and practices shape credibility and authority of women's writing.Collins, Vicki Tolar. "The Speaker Respoken: Material Rhetoric as Feminist Methodology." College English, vol. 61, no. 5, 1999, pp. 545–73. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/378973. In recent years, archives have been deconstructed, or critically analyzed, outside of scholarly articles.
Feminist rhetorical academics work to develop research methods and methodologies by including new types of archival research such as yearbooks, small-town newspapers, and community-contributing archival websites. To add, some scholars have gone as far as reintroducing the concept of ethos as it pertains to women leading public discourse. Scholars have argued women who are not white, middle class, and heterosexual are challenged in establishing credibility as it pertains to the Aristotelian ethos. Furthermore, scholars offer the concept of feminist ecological ēthe. This concept moves away from the traditional rhetorical device, ethos. This proposed concept identifies women's ethos as new ways to adopt interrelationality, materiality, and agency.
The research article, published by Cheryl Glenn, titled: "The Language of Rhetorical Feminism, Anchored in Hope," provides insight into the study and usage of feminist rhetoric. Focusing mainly on "...the necessity of hope to the democratic ideal, where everyone has a voice –and uses it rhetorically. Second, I will explain the tactic I call "rhetorical feminism," which is anchored in hope; and, finally, I will meditate on hope and the possibilities of rhetorical feminism for us all."
Glenn argues that while women have legal equality, it does not translate to social equality. That is, even though women have gained suffrage, their voices still are not always heard. She claims that other rhetoricians are employing rhetorical feminism when they deliver messages that promote inclusivity, human rights and social justice, and mutual understanding. She defines rhetorical feminism as "a set of tactics that multiplies rhetorical opportunities in terms of who counts as a rhetor, who can inhabit an audience, and what those audiences can do." Glenn writes that when implemented, rhetorical feminism is inclusive, representative, and democratic. She also states that rhetorical feminism's key distinguishing feature is that it is "anchored in hope," meaning that rhetorical feminists take into account evidence that does not look good and use their hope to look beyond the facts in order to create new possibilities.