Speech and Rhetorical Studies Commons^™

Girls Are Us: A Collection Of Oral Histories From The Jmu Community, Anne M. Sherman

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

On a campus where women make up a majority of the student population, it is especially important that female voices are heard and given a platform on which they can control their own narrative. I wanted to give those female-identifying voices that platform. I conducted a series of interviews to examine how college-aged female-identifying students feel about their identity and how they construct that identity within the climate of the JMU community. I was particularly interested in the intersections of gender, race, ethnicity, class, sexual preference, and ability. I asked each person to share their stories of times when they …

Choosing The Best: A Rhetorical Analysis And Discussion Of An Abstinence-Centered Sexuality Education Curriculum, Carolyn Buonomo

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

This rhetorical analysis examines Choosing the Best Journey, a Choosing the Best, LLC student manual targeted at ninth and tenth grade students, and testimonials from the company’s website to provide insight about the ways in which the company’s curricula position women. In what way does this content position women in relation to men? Does the curriculum position women as those who both hold the responsibility for preventing and bearing the burden of premarital sexual activity? In what ways does this content work to reinforce gender stereotypes? By answering these questions, I am able to determine whether the curriculum works …

Sexuality & Perspective, Emma Tabei, Emily Ellison, Tyrell J. Osborn, Ileana Garnand

Collin College Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Student Research Conference

Panel Chair: Whitney Pisani

Papers Presented:

"Siren's Song of Sapiosexuality" by Emma Tabei

Abstract: Gender and male and female communications is discussed just as much if not more than politics currently. As we get more and more interested in understanding communication between genders, perhaps we need to look at where we came from instead of guessing what will happen next. Homer's, "Odyssey," specifically the "Siren's Song," pits male and female gender roles and perspectives against each other resulting in an untraditional look at modern female and male communications far ahead of Homer’s time; departing from the stereotypical gender looking glass. …

Sexy Robots: A Perpetuation Of Patriarchy, Ashlyn Des Roches

Communication Studies

This feminist critique looks into the way that gender, specifically females, are portrayed in some of Hollywood's top films involving Artificial Intelligence: Blade Runner, Her, and Ex Machina. These movies work as a perpetuation of patriarchal ideologies while maintaining the objectification and hypersexuality of women as normalized behaviors. Additionally, while some forms of empowerment are conveyed, the features illustrate women merely on a spectrum of extreme behavior; due to Heuristics and Cultivation Theory, these misrepresentations can be associated with women outside the surrealist realm of the depicted artificially intelligent worlds.

Exploring Diversity, Citizenship, And Gender Through Jazz: A Narrative Criticism Of I Am Jazz, Mary Beth Jones

Northwest Communication Association Conference Papers & Presentations

In this study, a narrative analysis of a children’s picture book was conducted to uncover how young audiences are taught about diversity and inclusion through books. The setting, characters, narrator, and target audiences of the 2014 book I am Jazz were evaluated to decipher how readers are educated about transgenderism and diversity in greater context. Specific rhetorical qualities in the visual and written elements emphasize the importance of diversity, uniqueness, individuality, and acceptance. This particular book has created a range of support and protest since its publication, and it is an important example of the emotional and political power of …

On Making A Difference: How Photography And Narrative Produce The Short-Term Missions Experience, Joshua Kerby Jennings

Theses and Dissertations--Community & Leadership Development

Short-term missions participants encounter difference in purportedly captivating ways. Current research, however, indicates the practice does not lead to long-lasting, positive change. Brian M. Howell (2012) argues the short-term missions experience is confined to the limitations of the short-term missions narrative. People who engage in short-term missions build assumptions, seek experiences, understand difference, and convey meaning, as a result of this narrative. The process of telling and retelling travel stories is integral to the short-term missions experience. Drawing upon literature on tourism, narrative, development, and photography, this study intends to evaluate the inefficacy of short-term missions through the stories which …

Othering Others: Right-Wing Populism In Uk Media Discourse On “New” Immigration, Grace E. Fielder, Theresa Catalano

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Right wing populism is on the rise. Through the use of othering, right-wing groups delimit their own identities while excluding others. The purpose of this chapter is to shed light on how European mediated public spheres (such as reader responses to media discourse) constitute an important domain of identity articulation and struggle through the discursive construction of the ‘Other’. In this case, the others come from the Central and Eastern European countries that are perceived as newcomers to Western Europe due to the consecutive enlargements of the European Union. Specifically, this chapter provides an in-depth analysis of 236 reader comments …

Hillary Rodham Clinton And Shifts In Gendered Rhetorical Style, Mackenzie Lombardi

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

Hillary Rodham Clinton is arguably the most visible and controversial female political figure of our time. As First Lady, the Senator from New York, the Secretary of State, and a two-time Presidential candidate, the rhetorical space around Clinton is saturated with cultural assumptions of gender, power, and politics. In many ways Clinton is emblematic of the infamous “double bind” that all women who seek to challenge normative gendered roles must inevitably face. Much academic and cultural focus has been centered on the ways in which Hillary Rodham Clinton is a subject of gendered rhetoric. This paper, instead, builds on the …