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
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... movement theory by communication scholars and social scientists . The result is an integration of Burkeian rhetorical criticism and movement theory that William Gamson and I could only dream of when I visited with him in Ann Arbor back ...
... social sciences , that is , in the direction of " approaches that seek to understand how patterns of consciousness ... movement organizations and actors inter- pret grievances and generate consensus on belief and action ... create col- ...
... social movement culture . Sociologist Mary Bernstein ( 1997 ) notes , for example , that shared collective identity is not only necessary for mobilization , but is a goal of social movement rhetoric as either the construction of an ...
... social structures . We agree with sociologists Hunt , Benford , and David Snow ( 1994 ) that the construction of identity is inherent in social movement framing activi- ties . " Not only do framing processes link individuals and groups ...
... social controversy lies in di- vision between movements and countermovements , " that a variety of movement outcomes , from resource mobilization to longevity , depend upon scripting and sustaining agon " ( Benford & Hunt , 1992 , p ...
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 |