Blog Post #1

HELLO!

It has been a few weeks since the start of this semester and I am feeling great! In my rhetoric course, we have learned so much and have dove into so many great feminist topics! I really enjoy this class and the readings/assignments we have completed thus far.

While Feminist Rhetoric is a type of rhetoric, it is also an entirely separate topic of its own! We have read a ton of pieces, such as Gloria Anzaldua's "How to Tame a Wild Tongue," Anita Hill's Opening Statement, Dorothy Allison's, "From Two or Three Things I Know For Sure," and many other educational works!

My favorite piece we have read is definitely Anzaldua's "How to Tame a Wild Tongue." She explores the topics of intersectionality, identity, and feminism through her story about being a queer, Chicana woman in the United States. Anzaldua's piece is a great example of feminist rhetoric because she illustrates how not only men have been misogynistic to her, but also other women. This topic is very eye-opening, because typically feminist pieces are about men discriminating against women. The fact that Anzaldua is brave enough to showcase the same hatred she has experienced from other women is an example of why feminist rhetoric is so important in our society.

As we continue to read feminist works, I continue to learn more everyday about the importance of rhetoric. As we talked about in an earlier class, rhetoric excluded women for hundreds, if not thousands of years. Even today, women are still occasionally left out of many areas of society, like politics and other male-dominated fields. We also see this in Anita Hill's Opening Statement in front of the U.S. Government. In the video, we see that the entire panel of congressmen consists of only men, and Hill is alone in front of them all. Even when she recounts memories from her life, they diminish her and tell her that those things are "not that bad." This statement piece is just as important in that it exemplifies how women are left out of the workplace, rhetoric, and many topics of conversation. Being a woman myself, I have (sadly) experienced sexism from men and society. Men have diminished what I have had to say countless times, but I am grateful that I am alive during a time where feminism is more common and outspoken. There is a lot of work to be done, but there are so many feminists out there who continue to fight for equality!

In this course, we have great conversation and we learn so much from our teacher, Ms. B! I really enjoy the involvement that my fellow classmates show in class and how interactive the material is! I feel like I am learning in more ways than one, and I always leave this class with a new perspective from one of my classmates. There are so many ways to interpret each of the readings we look at in class, and I think this course has taught me that!

Whether we are learning about paternal legacies or reading pieces about the struggles of certain women in their day to day life, there is always something so interesting about rhetoric! While it was intended just for white upper-class men, it has evolved over the centuries because of each demographic of people it has come across--- especially because of women. Feminist Rhetors are powerful, and if Platos and Socrates could see them now, they might agree (they wouldn't admit that out loud though because I'm sure they had big egos).

That's all for now. Until next time!

Abigail Merzel