Arts and Humanities Commons^™

“Phonesex : A Digital Collage” And “Dis|Orientation : A Straight Closet”, Jonathan Alexander

Harlot: A Revealing Look at the Arts of Persuasion

As a scholar in rhetoric and composition and a media artist, I am primarily interested in exploring how people compose with digital technologies, as well as what these compositions mean for their many and varied senses of self, individually and collectively. I also work at the intersection of writing studies and sexuality studies, exploring what it means to "compose queerly," as well as what theories of sexuality, particularly queer theory, have to teach us about literacy in pluralistic democracies. These interests permeate the two digital compositions that Harlot has graciously agreed to publish.

See the original creator's statement and two …

Photograph In Four Parts, Pablo Tanguay

Harlot: A Revealing Look at the Arts of Persuasion

If you listen to enough old poets, they will tell you that these ekphrastic poems that are about art and about painting need to be able to exist independently of the painting or visual art itself. I always sort of questioned that idea -- why? I think it's a physical limitation that journals don't have photographs -- that it's too expensive to put the photograph with the poem. But why you can't do that is beyond me.

Playing Heads Or Tails With My Diaphragm: Drinking Lattes With Hélène Cixous, Rebecca Mccarthy

Harlot: A Revealing Look at the Arts of Persuasion

While sitting through endless political speeches and pundit commentary this election cycle, one would be hard pressed to miss the continuous expressions of careless racism and sexism that is an under-theme to this presidential election. Moreover, with the Republican nomination of Sarah Palin for McCain's VP, I find myself in awe over the assumption that the simple election of a woman to an office of power equates the breaking of the glass ceiling. As such, I felt compelled to revisit Hélène Cixoius' suggestion that we need a new feminine language to combat both institutionalized and careless sexism. But what would …

We've Come So Far . . ., Kerry Dirk

Harlot: A Revealing Look at the Arts of Persuasion

This piece is a brief rant about the current gender stereotypes that play out in commercials and other forms of advertisements. While sarcasm constantly reigns in this rant, there is also a grain of truth to these complaints. Yet there is also an amount of truth in these commercials, as they are not unintentionally addressing these stereotypical audiences. I was inspired to write this piece after seeing endless commercials trying to sell me, a woman, various cleaning and cooking products. I was especially bothered because these commercials, by appealing to women, are really confirming that women are still the primary …

Beijing's 2008 Olympic Games, Harlot Editors

Harlot: A Revealing Look at the Arts of Persuasion

To stretch your rhetorical muscles, check out this provocate prompt on Beijing's 2008 Olympic Games.

Something's Fishy Here, Kate Comer

Harlot: A Revealing Look at the Arts of Persuasion

I wrote this piece as a sort of Harlot test run. When we began talking about the need for public-oriented rhetorical criticism, Jim Fredal challenged me to figure out what that might look like. I'd recently written a rather academic analysis of Hans Christian Andersen's original "Little Mermaid" and was hoping to make it relevant/current; Disney's version had just been re-released in a "Platinum Edition" DVD and was being adapted into a Broadway show. So it made sense to put it all together, using my sister as my ideal audience: smart, fun, feministá and concerned about her new baby's exposure …

Welcome To Harlot!, Harlot Editors

Harlot: A Revealing Look at the Arts of Persuasion

An introduction to Harlot: A Revealing Look at the Arts of Persuasion.

Real Estate Downturn, Sonya Huber

Harlot: A Revealing Look at the Arts of Persuasion

This piece began in the heat of a real-life dilemma: the real-estate market tanked and I was stuck with a house in Columbus, Ohio, long after I moved to Georgia. Neurosis and anxiety demanded that I think of every possible way to get rid of the darn house, and as I became more desperate, I became willing to sell it even for scrap materials. Luckily it sold (finally) after a year on the market. I used this essay to joke about some real-life challenges, including the fact that someone broke into the vacant house and stole all the copper plumbing. …

Caroling Commercialism: The Rhetorical Power Of Christmas Music, Daniel Wharton

Harlot: A Revealing Look at the Arts of Persuasion

"Caroling Commercialism" focuses on the tiny topic of Christmas music and uses this as a lens through which the author examines the growing commodification of the Christmas holiday. At the surface, the expanding season during which radio stations play holiday music seems more like an annoyance than a problem. But the practice is actually a harbinger of a more dastardly intention. In short, there is economic incentive for retailers to pay more money for advertising during the holiday season. Because Christmas music puts consumers in the holiday spirit, stations are more likely to comingle holiday advertising with holiday music. And …

A Provocation: Queer Is Not A Substitute For Gay/Lesbian, Aneil Rallin

Harlot: A Revealing Look at the Arts of Persuasion

I mull over the increasing interchangeability of queer with lesbian/gay (which ends up domesticating queer's radical potential) and call for queer to be liberated from the mainstream forces and institutional structures that have appropriated it.