Valerie R. Renegar

The rhetorical functions of consciousness‐raising in third wave feminism

The rhetorical practice of consciousness‐raising has changed since communication theorists first began to apply its functions and style, as a small group, face‐to‐face practice, in the early 1970s. In this essay, we argue that in feminist activism and theory, the practice of consciousness‐raising has evolved in response to shifting cultural conditions. Our examination of consciousness‐raising rhetoric produced by self‐labeled “third wave” feminists reveals how contemporary social contexts have generated different rhetorical problems and discursive responses for feminists. Specifically, we show how third wave feminist consciousness‐raising instills a critical perspective that focuses on personal and social injustices. We argue that these rhetorical responses raise consciousness in the public sphere, through mass media, popular culture, and college classrooms, fostering both public and private dialogue about gender inequities that aims at self‐persuasion.

Reconceptualizing rhetorical activism in contemporary feminist contexts

ABSTRACT Feminist activism has long incorporated the rhetorical strategies of public protest and confrontation. However, feminist thought has also produced forms of activism that both include and move beyond these traditional rhetorical options. This essay explores the rhetorical exigencies of contemporary feminist activism, and then examines examples of rhetorical activism that play an integral part in contemporary feminism, such as creating grassroot models of leadership, using strategic humor, building feminist identity, sharing stories, and challenging stereotypes. This activism contributes not only to our understanding of the rhetoric of contemporary feminism, but also extends the rhetorical theories of social movements and counterpublics to include alternative kinds of activist options.

Capitalistic Agency: The Rhetoric of BP's Helios Power Campaign

In this essay, we use rhetorical analysis to examine how British Petroleums (BP) Helios Power media campaign both encourages and embodies capitalistic agency as the means to enact pro-environmental behavior. This form of agency limits the scope of environmentalism. Capitalistic agency can be conceptualized as the capacity to enact, or the process of enacting, capitalistic ends as well as the inherent constraining of agency that is not oriented toward the production of capital. Helios Power, launched in 2007, is BPs most recent American television, radio, internet advertising, and branding campaign. We examine the campaign website which heavily incorporates green marketing, including background images of wind turbines, environmental buzzwords throughout the text, green color schemes, and a section dedicated to conservation advocacy. By rhetorically aligning BP with environmentalism, providing customers a means of participation with environmentalism, and constraining profit-hindering conservation behaviors, Helios Power provides a vivid illustration for understanding the impact of capitalistic agency on societys perception of and progress toward environmental sustainability.

“The Man for His Time” The Big Lebowski as Carnivalesque Social Critique

This essay explores the ability of carnivalesque rhetorical strategies to challenge hegemonic social hierarchies and the social order in general. Working through grotesque realism, the inversion of hierarchies, structural and grammatical experimentation and other tropes, the carnivalesque encourages audiences to achieve a critical distance through laughter and realize the constructed nature of the social world. In analyzing The Big Lebowski as a carnivalesque text, the films critical stance becomes clear—it proposes an alternative worldview contrary to that which dominated the political and social landscapes of the United States at the time of the first Gulf War in 1991. The film encourages receptive audiences to question both the nature and the values of that social world, as well as their place in it. A “persons place” is thus revealed to be more of a malleable choice than a concrete dictate. However, because carnivalesque texts challenge the status quo (and are often offensive to dominant tastes and values), they tend to meet with denigration and derision. Such was the case with The Big Lebowski. By employing a carnivalesque lens and working against the grain of mainstream value systems, cultural critics can help to rescue such texts from pop culture oblivion (as Lebowski was by its cult-like following) and highlight their potential to help us realize more humane, more egalitarian, and more pacific ways of being and interacting in our communities.

The Dream of a Cyberpunk Future? Entelechy, Dialectical Tension, and the Comic Corrective in William Gibson's Neuromancer

We argue the comic frame, as described by Kenneth Burke, can serve as a vehicle for critical self-reflection and social critique. William Gibsons Neuromancer is a work of cyberpunk science fiction that details a future that closely resembles the present. The book exemplifies this process of encouraging self-reflection because it calls the trends of the present into question by imagining what kind of future they will construct. Gibsons future is simultaneously exciting and devastating. The dialectical tension between these oppositional ideas opens up a discursive space for audiences to begin the process of critical self-reflection about the technological trends of contemporary society. Gibson rhetorically constructs this tension through incongruity, irony, and casuistic stretching, thus fostering a corrective perspective.

“Abusive Furniture”: Visual Metonymy and the Hungarian Stop Violence Against Women Campaign

ABSTRACT In this essay, we argue that Amnesty international’s media campaign against domestic violence unwittingly directs attention away from perpetrators of abuse to their victims. This reinforcement happens through the visual features of the campaign and, more specifically, through metonymic substitution. We examine three imagetexts from an Amnesty International media campaign in Hungary targeting domestic violence to better understand the function and implication of visual metonymy. Each imagetext features a woman next to a household object that metonymically replaces a perpetrator of domestic abuse. Using vector analysis, we suggest that compositional factors and text in each imagetext work together to focus attention on specific aspects of the image. In these imagetexts, metonymic substitution functions to hide the perpetrators of violence and instead focus attention on the victims for making excuses about their own victimization.

Critical/Cultural Scholarship and the Responsibility for Building Theory: Enduring Criticism Revisited

Communication journals appeal to an audience with an interest in communication and communication theory. Consequently, critical/cultural scholars should contribute to the body of theory in our field. This engagement with theory enables our discipline to produce “enduring criticism” that offers insight long after the fascination with particular artifacts has passed.

Up in the Air with a Burkean Clown: The Comic Frame of Acceptance in Uncertain Economic Times

This analysis of Up in the Air illustrates that contracting the focus of Burke’s comic frame from the social to the individual has the potential to limit social change. We argue that focusing on the failings of individuals rather than the problems of the larger culture facilitates the acceptance of the prevailing social order. To explore our contention, we examine Burke’s concept of a comic frame and the role of the clown. We analyze how the film’s main character enacts the role of a “clown” across the three acts of the film, then conclude with observations concerning the film’s message about economic uncertainty and the implications of our analysis for the rhetorical and critical use of the comic frame and the figure of the clown.