Progay/Antigay: The Rhetorical War Over SexualityCombining humanistic rhetorical criticism with social scientific concepts, Ralph R. Smith and Russel R. Windes examine how the discourse of the progay/antigay debate shapes the self-understanding and strategies of the two opposing sides. The struggle over issues such as lesbians and gay men serving openly in the military, same-sex marriage, and inclusion of "sexual orientation" in anti-discrimination and hate crime laws have evolved along with the development of rival progay and traditionalist antigay communities. In the process of presenting their arguments to the wider society, the two sides exercise extraordinary influence on each other. As a result of the public policy debates, the progay movement has moved toward an essentialist, non-sexual identity, while the traditionalists have shifted toward a secular public self-representation. Progay/Antigay also analyzes the internal disagreements within the two movements. The same-sex marriage debate illustrates important dimensions of the contest over sexuality. The authors examine rhetorical strategy and counter-strategy in this specific institutional context. Progay/Antigay also discusses how the study of the variant sexuality issue provides the opportunity to assess paths for reconciliation and to judge concepts of political pluralism and multiculturalism. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 60
... create col- lective identities ... produce frames of meaning ... vocabularies of mo- tive , and social dramas necessary to mobilize constituents " ( Ellingson , 1997 , p . 269 ) . Such a cultural approach recognizes that “ social move ...
... creating identity out of the sociality of collective action . Burke ( 1959/1937 ) points out that " ' identification ' is hardly other than a name for the function of sociality ” ( p . 266 ) . Rhetorical critic Maurice Charland ( 1987 ) ...
... created a range of identities in order to accomplish persuasive pur- poses . The concept of framing ( creating patterns for organizing thought about issues ) , which is important to our understanding of rhetorical criti- cism , also has ...
... created a partial understanding by patch- ing together fragments of texts . This is a self - conscious attempt to re- spond to rhetorician Michael McGee's ( 1990 ) challenge to " reconcile tra- ditional modes of analysis with the so ...
... created by the advocates of various sides of the controversy , interacting with each other and the public " ( pp . 419-420 ) . Several rhetorical critics have explained how opponents in public con- troversy constrain one another's ...
Contents
1 | |
Chapter 2 Analysis of Communication in Contests Over Variant Sexuality | 35 |
Chapter 3 Appeals in Progay and Traditionalist Discourses | 57 |
Chapter 4 Antagonistic Construction of Identity and Conflict | 93 |
Chapter 5 Debate Within Communities | 127 |
A Case Study | 155 |
Chapter 7 Criticism of the Variant Sexuality Issue Culture | 181 |
References | 203 |
Index | 227 |
About the Authors | 239 |