All around society, examples are found for how the debate for equality is being rhetorised, giving various suggestions for how the struggle should, or may, be fought, as well as suggestions for who and whom should be included within the term equality. Here a study is presented on the feminst equality campaign SheForHe and the debate article ”Men can – but you need our help”, in which a critique of malevolent norms of masculinity encourages women to free the man from the chains of patriarchy. The purpose is to investigate how, within the perspective of rhetorics, the article can be seen as to challenge the present discourse in the debate about equality through the following questions: Which motives are being constructed? Which rhetorical strategies are at play? Which ”men” and which ”women” as well as their internal relations are constructed? This is done based on Kenneth Burke’s theories on dramatism and the pentad as method of analysis for change of perspectives, as well as Karlyn Khors Campbell’s theories on the rhetoric of women’s liberation. The analysis is discussed drawing from Judith Butler’s terms performativity and the heterosexual matrix. The main conclusion is that the article can be seen as a rhetorical action in solidarity that through a societal critique aims to offer men new possibilties of identification. At the same time the article can be regarded as, within the scope of the equality debate, a rhetorical provocation that gives women actorship in the struggle for equality and highlights a male dominance within the debate. A further conclusion is that the article, although it may be viewed as an important act of resistance, is at risk of reproducing the view of ”men” and ”women” as homogenous collective identities, further constituting the gender system and contributing to the consolidation of a learned mandatory heterosexuality.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:sh-34438 |
| Date | January 2017 |
| Creators | Nilsson Persson, Cajsa |
| Publisher | Södertörns högskola, Retorik |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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