The discipline and disciplining of Margaret Sanger: US birth control rhetoric in the early twentieth century

Margaret Sanger\u27s rhetoric in the US birth control movement demonstrates the social forces that act upon rhetors and women\u27s bodies, conforming both to established gender norms even as they attempt to violate those standards. This project studies Sanger\u27s birth control rhetoric to understand how her arguments for women\u27s right to contraception conformed women\u27s bodies to traditional feminine notions despite her early efforts to contradict such dictates of domesticity. Research on nineteenth-century feminist rhetors demonstrates a pattern of women challenging feminine ideals by speaking publicly but replicating the familiar themes that women must care for others. To explain such a pattern, this study combines the theories of interpretation and genealogy to analyze texts\u27 meanings with a respect for the ways that social forces conform speakers to already established norms and themes. This project follows genealogical demands for a complex history by discussing the discourses that challenge and support early twentieth century birth control rhetoric . Early themes in Sanger\u27s rhetoric focus on issues of class and women\u27s personal liberation. Analysis shows that Sanger begins by addressing the class oppression working class experience before engaging in class maternalism in which she condescends to lower class women setting upper class women as examples of bodily discipline. Sanger\u27s early themes of birth control as women\u27s liberation give way to an emphasis upon women using birth control to better serve their families, thereby fulfilling their maternal duties. Later themes in Sanger\u27s rhetoric emphasize birth control\u27s utility to the state for managing the rate and quality of women\u27s reproduction. The movement from earlier to later themes in Sanger\u27s rhetoric shifts from speaking about women as subject with control of their bodies to objects whose bodies must be controlled. Employing capitalistic themes, Sanger argues that women\u27s rate of reproduction must be controlled to safeguard national security. Using notions of social evolution, Sanger engages in eugenic discourse to demand the control of women\u27s bodies who produce unfit offspring. The sweep of Sanger\u27s rhetoric proves the utility of genealogical interpretation to understand the dynamics of power and discourse that conform feminist speakers to accepted gender definitions

Adam Mansplains Everything: White-Hipster Masculinity as Covert Hegemony

The series Adam Ruins Everything (ARE) provides an opportunity to contemplate White, hipster masculinity and its professed progressivism in U.S. culture. As seen in ARE, hipster masculinity claims—in part—to possess an enlightened social politic, challenging sexism, racism, and heterosexism, yet the figuration of the White, cisgender-male hipster we get seemingly adopts feminist positions as means to insulate and expand his own social privilege. Using rhetorical strategies to win debates against cultural hegemony, the hipster of ARE becomes a superior masculinity, a trusted voice to guide and liberate White women and people of color, centering himself as the source of a singular truth. The essay provides the opportunity to consider ongoing tensions and ironies between men/masculinity and feminism

Book Review of Love and Money: Queers, Class, and Cultural Production by Lisa Henderson

Lisa Henderson, LOVE AND MONEY: QUEERS, CLASS, AND CULTURAL PRODUCTION. New York: New York University Press, 2013; 201 pp. ISBN: 9780814790588, $23.00 paperback

Masters of Their Domain: Seinfeld and the Discipline of Mediated Men\u27s Sexual Economy

I must confess that I am much more interested in problems about technologies of the self and things like that rather than sex. . . . Sex is boring

Just Along for the Ride?: A Father-to-Be Searching for His Role.

Book Summary: Essential Breakthroughs: Conversations About Men, Mothers, and Mothering thinks from the nexus of gender, essentialism, and care. The authors creatively blend the philosophical and the personal to collectively argue that while gender is essential to our social and theoretical definitions of care, it is dangerously co-opted into naturalized discourses, which limit particular identities and negate certain forms of care. The perspectives curated in Essential Breakthroughs illuminate how care, as a respected and productive cultural ethic, is neither inherent nor instinctual for any human, but is learned and fostered. The chapters are informed by feminist, queer, and trans politics, wielding post-structuralist methodologies of unlearning and deconstruction, while maintaining the maternal lens as a credible feminist analytical tool and not as a gender-essentialist practice

Students See, Students Do?: Inducing a Peer Norm Effect for Oral Source Citations

Video modeling was used to establish descriptive norms for proper oral citation performance in a general education public speaking class (N = 191). Three conditions—a control, a peer model video, and a nonpeer model video—were compared for influence on proper citation usage and completeness. Results indicated that students viewing any video performed more complete citations than students not viewing a video. Results were mixed when comparing the effects of the peer model video against the nonpeer model video. Findings suggest norms for proper oral citation behavior can be established through modeling videos

Answer Me These Questions Three: Using Online Training to Improve Students’ Oral Source Citations

This experimental study examines an online module designed to increase student competence in oral citation behavior using a mastery training strategy. Students in the experimental condition provided complete citations at a higher rate and provided more citation information for traditional and web-based sources compared with a control group without required training. Although subjective norms set by instructors also influence citation behavior, the general trend depicted was that students completing the required module training performed more complete citations. Implications for student learning, mastery instruction, and course assessment were considered to be generally beneficial and at minimal cost

According to, Student Motivations… : A Theory of Planned Behavior Investigation of Students’ Intention to Orally Cite Sources

This study employs the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to understand the role of attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control on students’ intent to orally cite sources using complete, rather than partial, citations. Undergraduates (N = 326) enrolled in general education oral communication courses completed a self-report survey testing the TPB variables and students’ citation intentions. Findings demonstrate that subjective norms and perceived behavioral control predict student intention to cite sources and do so completely. Tensions between credibility gains and time constraints are also evident. Implications for teaching students in basic courses about oral citations are discussed

The Daily Show and Rhetoric Arguments, Issues, and Strategies

The Daily Show and Rhetoric approaches the popular program from a scholarly, rhetorical perspective to uncover the rhetorical nature of the show. Using a variety of rhetorical methods, the book, taken as a whole, concludes that The Daily Show is more that just a show designed to make the audience laugh; it's designed to make the audience think.Intro -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: The Daily Show and Rhetoric-Arguments, Issues, and Strategies -- I: The Nature of the Beast -- 1 The Arete of Amusement: An Aristotelian Perspective on the Ethos of The Daily Show -- 2 Before and After The Daily Show: Freedom and Consequences in Political Satire -- 3 Cramer vs. (Jon Stewart's Characterization of) Cramer: Image Repair Rhetoric, Late Night Political Humor, and The Daily Show -- II: Arguments -- 4 The (not-so) Laughable Political Argument: A Close-Textual Analysis of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart -- 5 Models of Democratic Deliberation: Pharmacodynamic Agonism in The Daily Show -- 6 Purifying Laughter: Carnivalesque Self-Parody as Argument Scheme in The Daily Show with Jon Stewart -- 7 The Voice of the People: Jon Stewart, Public Argument, and Political Satire -- III: Strategies -- 8 We Frame to Please: A Preliminary Examination of The Daily Show's Use of Frames -- 9 Breaking News: A Postmodern Rhetorical Analysis of The Daily Show -- 10 Visual Aspects of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart -- IV: Issues -- 11 Gaywatch: A Burkean Frame Analysis of The Daily Show's Treatment of Queer Topics -- 12 Modern Hebrew Prophets? The Daily Show and Religious Satire -- 13 The Daily Show and Barack Obama's Comic Critique of Whiteness: An Intersection of Popular and Political Rhetoric -- Index -- About the ContributorsThe Daily Show and Rhetoric approaches the popular program from a scholarly, rhetorical perspective to uncover the rhetorical nature of the show. Using a variety of rhetorical methods, the book, taken as a whole, concludes that The Daily Show is more that just a show designed to make the audience laugh; it's designed to make the audience think.Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, YYYY. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries