Feminist Criticism probes

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Feminist Criticism probes
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Things we could discuss

• Feminist criticism has its roots in a social and
  political movement, the womens liberation
  movement, aimed at improving conditions for
  women.
• The diversity among definitions of feminism also
  characterizes the goals and objectives of
  feminists.

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Waves of Feminism

• First wave focused on security the right to vote
  for women.
• Second wave is focused on achieving equality for
  women and the development of opportunities for
  women without the constraints of gender
  expectations.
• Liberal feminists
• Radical feminists
• Marxist feminists
• Lesbian feminists

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• Third waverejecting a universal definition of
  womanhood as middle class, white, heterosexualis
  focused on unique personal experiences,
  circumstances, and contexts as mechanisms for
  constructing an agenda of feminist activism.
  Power feminism attempts to empower women rather
  than portray them as victims.

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Contributions to scholarship

• Feminism presents argument that feminism
  transforms rhetorical constructs and theories.
• Feminism has begun to explore the contributions
  of women rhetoric, gendered speaking styles, and
  diverse forms of expression, rhetors, contexts.
• Feminism has encouraged studies of movements of
  particular interest to women.

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• Feminist scholars recognized that incorporating
  feminist perspectives into rhetorical studies
  could do nothing less than transform the
  discipline, a process whereby scholars question
  their presuppositions, replace them as
  appropriate, and create new conceptualizations
  that incorporate womens perspectives.

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Feminist criticism

• Feminist criticism is the analysis of rhetoric to
  discover how the rhetorical construction of
  gender is used as a means for domination and a
  and how that process can be challenged so that
  all people understand that they have the capacity
  to claim agency and act in the world as they
  choose.

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Analyzing the artifact two steps

• Analysis of the construct of genderor whatever
  aspect of identity is your focusin the artifact
  studied
• Exploration of what the artifact suggests about
  how the ideology of domination is constructed and
  maintained or how it can be challenged and
  transformed.

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Analysis of gender what questions
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Implications for the construction of gender