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Speech and Rhetorical Studies Commons

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Communication Faculty Publications

College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University

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Full-Text Articles in Speech and Rhetorical Studies

"Just Look At Her!": Sporting Bodies As Athletic Resistance And The Limits Of Sport Norms In The Case Of Caster Semenya, Shane Miller Aug 2015

"Just Look At Her!": Sporting Bodies As Athletic Resistance And The Limits Of Sport Norms In The Case Of Caster Semenya, Shane Miller

Communication Faculty Publications

Using the American sport media’s treatment of South African runner Caster Semenya, this article explores how in the course of defending Caster Semenya the American sport media presented a rigorous challenge to traditional conceptions of sex and gender. Yet these rhetorical efforts to deconstruct sex and gender binaries were undermined by the specific ways in which Semenya’s dual performances—athletic and gender—were visually depicted. A close reading and analysis of US sports media coverage of Caster Semenya provide an opportunity to explore the ways in which the norms of sport may foster progressive treatment of athletes whose genders do not fit …


The Rhetoric Of ‘Military Readiness’: Public Discourse, Whales And Navy Sonar, Terence Check Jan 2010

The Rhetoric Of ‘Military Readiness’: Public Discourse, Whales And Navy Sonar, Terence Check

Communication Faculty Publications

On November 12, 2008, the Supreme Court decided a significant case involving the use of mid-frequency active sonar in the waters off the coast of Southern California. In the decision, Winter v. NRDC, the High Court ruled that the Navy‘s need to conduct military training using active sonar outweighed the interests of environmentalists, who had contended that sonar results in devastating effects on marine mammals. This paper examines the public and legal discourse related to the case, arguing that the Navy invoked an ideograph of that valorized military technology and expertise at the expense of the natural environment. The paper …