Mulvaney, Becky

This thesis identifies the price inconstancies between male and female consumer personal care products, such as razors and deodorants. Economic research suggests consumers purchase products based on their willingness to pay, which depends upon satisfaction granted from the product. If this is true, the question must be asked: what grants these consumers high satisfaction from product purchasing? To answer this question, this thesis investigates the rhetorical effect that stems from product design. Using a rhetorical criticism technique, I analyze how product design allows consumers to project their gender identity. I assert that consumers are interpellated to choose products based on their gender. Once this interpellation takes place, a constitutive rhetoric formed by the product’s design already assumes the consumer’s wants by embedding masculine or feminine ideologies. The analysis shows product design perpetuates clear gender dichotomy and fortifies the belief of gender binaries.

The Trayvon Martin shooting of 2013 and the Michael Brown shooting of 2014 by a White security guard and White police officer sequentially led to the Black Lives Matter movement which has grown internationally to 40 chapters. Police agencies have responded with active community outreach programs to proactively reduce conflict. The question arises whether a language of peace such as Rosenberg’s Nonviolent Communication would be an effective tool to be used in instances of conflict similar to the carnage involving Black men and White police officers between 2013-2017. Local members of the Black community, Black Lives Matter, and law enforcement were interviewed asking the efficacy of Rosenberg’s NVC and deliberative dialogue as well. The study showed that since Blacks and Whites view racism differently, a more comprehensive approach is needed to address the challenges of racism and race relations. This thesis describes the possible use of a few models structured to discuss the racial conflict between all parties affected by racism.

This thesis project seeks to answer the question of how visual rhetoric put forward
in social media content by pro-life and pro-choice organizations may persuade their
audiences’ perspective on abortion. Using Sonja Foss’s guidelines for analysis of visual
rhetoric, I analyze 24 selected examples of Facebook content posted by two pro-life
organizations (Human Coalition and Feminists for Life) and two pro-choice organizations
(Planned Parenthood Action and NARAL Pro-Choice America) in 2017.
My analysis found that the visual rhetoric posted by both organizations on social
media can and does function as a form of visual metonymy. Because of this, these visual
strategies can stand in for more complex arguments in dramatic ways.

This purpose of this study is to investigate the apologetic rhetoric of professional
athletes’ off-field scandals. The three case studies used were Tiger Woods, Kobe Bryant,
and Michael Phelps. A genre analysis was conducted to determine the success or failure
of the speech by examining the image repair strategies used during the rhetoric.
Further research revealed that the audiences’ perception plays a large role in
determining if the rhetoric was successful or not. Two factors that aid the audience are
the medium in which the public address was given, and the time it took to deliver the
speech once the off-field scandal took place.
The findings determined that Tiger Woods apologia was not successful, while
Kobe Bryant’s was successful. The rhetoric of Michael Phelps’ speech lacked in delivery
and strategies chosen. To have a successful apologia, one should have a clear use of
strategies as well as a timely public address.

Wiccan witchcraft, a contemporary religion, frequently suffers from misunderstandings; the worst of which, arguably, being that it thrives in a postfeminist society. Although it remains unclear why witches, despite their specific traditions, would not immediately embrace feminism, this study claims that whether practitioners agree or disagree, they are performing feminism. In this study, I argue that Wiccan rhetoric (both discursive and non-discursive) functions epistemically to encourage feminist values. The thesis analyzes three typical forms of Wiccan rhetoric using Sonja K. Foss and Cindy L. Griffin’s approach of invitational rhetoric and the values of equality, immanent value, and self-determination.

In just over one year since United States v. Windsor— the case invalidating sections of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) that defined marriage, for purposes of federal statutes, as the “union of man and woman”— more than a dozen states have had their same-sex marriage bans ruled unconstitutional. This suggests a shift in legal meaning; previously successful arguments against same-sex “marriage” now seem irrational as argumentative ground has shifted. Since favorable rulings redefine “marriage” to include same-sex unions, this thesis analyzes Kitchen v. Herbert, a 2014 legal opinion from the United States Court of Appeals Tenth Circuit, to understand the rhetorical processes underpinning its redefinitional act. That analysis draws on Kenneth Burke’s theories of entitling and constitutions and discusses the rhetorical concepts of terministic screens, casuistic screens, scope and circumference as key features of the rhetoric of the legal opinions. The findings call for a balancing of deconstructive and conventional approaches to legal discourse.

For over four decades the Apartheid system in South Africa deprived many black South Africans their right to democracy. However, Nelson Mandela's leadership strategies would prove effective in helping the Anti-Apartheid movement achieve its common goal of universal suffrage for all South Africans. This thesis explores what made Mandela's rhetoric as a leader so effective during his courtroom testimonies from the Treason Trial in 1956 and the Rivonia Trial in 1964. A new model is developed to analyze leadership characteristics: charisma, prophecy, creativity, pragmatism and prophecy proved to be significant strategies in making his leadership rhetoric so effective. The purpose of the model is to demonstrate how leadership is fulfilled.

This thesis describes the pitfalls of writing rhetorical analyses of abortion arguments that are not sensitive to field dependence as described by Toulmin (1958). It examines Lake's (1984), Tonn's (1996), and Railsback's (1984) rhetorical analyses in order to test whether the lack of attention these scholars display toward field dependence detracts from the reliability of their analyses. To accomplish this task, this thesis will compare the scholars' analyses against my analysis of amicus curiae briefs filed with the Supreme Court in the Roe v. Wade (1973) and Webster v. Reproductive Health Services (1988) cases. The results show that the Lake's, Tonn's, and Railsback's analyses are problematic when compared to the arguments in these amicus curiae briefs. Thus this thesis concludes that scholars need to pay close attention to field dependence when writing rhetorical analyses not only of abortion arguments but also field specific arguments in general.

Fashion is a form of rhetoric. It has the power to communicate whether intentionally or not. Jacqueline Kennedy utilized this form of communication to express herself to create a new image of the White House, and to educate the American public on nuances. To her, the various aspects of fashion were strategies that allowed her to create a rhetoric all her own and one that was widely esteemed and emulated. Her creative use of style helped fulfill the public's desire for change in the White House. Essentially, Jackie added an aura that completed the "New Frontier" administration her husband promised. She had set new standards. Her popular style was copied not only because it was aesthetically pleasing, but because it constructed a compelling mystique composed in part by her wealth coupled with her high social and political standing.

San Francisco in the 1960s was the birthplace for many great bands and musicians: the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Country Joe and the Fish, and Janis Joplin. Following in the tradition of the early blues women, Janis Joplin burst onto the San Francisco music scene at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967. After only a four year music career she was found dead of a heroin overdose. An examination of Janis' life, her preferred expressive genre of the blues, and the sixties counterculture scene in San Francisco provides the appropriate context for a rhetorical analysis of Joplin's original lyrics to "Turtle Blues" and "Move Over." Using Burke's pentad, the ways in which Janis revolted against conventional femininity and her perception of herself as a victim of the "scene" in which she lived are demonstrated.