femminista: thoughts of a feminist rhetorician

Yesterday, I spoke with my students in English 420E: Business Writing for Entrepreneurs about ethics. Frequently, I have been told that undergrads don't get the nuances of ethical and moral situations. Yesterday ,I found evidence to both support and refute that hypothesis. Using Steven Katz's example of the Nazi memorandum, I discussed the ethical implications of using language that is too technical, that is dehumanizing. In the Nazi memo, which addresses the need for changes to the vehicles used to transport Jewish people to the death camps, people are referred to as "loads." Specifically, the memo uses such terminology thus: "it has been observed that when the doors are shut, the load always presses hard against them when darkness sets in.

Happy Earth Day! Recycling, reusing, and conserving has become even more important to me lately. I spend a lot of time trying to recycle everything possible, to reuse, buy less (I've had limited success here) and to give what I can't use.

So, I would like to make a small addition to my previous post.  No, I am not going to take back what I said about pundits.

Will the news stations start reporting the news instead of promoting debates as though they were promoting a wrestling match? I turn on MSNBC tonight and I'm appalled within the first minutes of listening. Am I appalled by deaths in Iraq, embassies being bombed, people starving? No. Because none of those things were mentioned. Instead, I hear about the "face-off" between Barack and Hillary. I read "which Clinton will show up." I hear about how the election has already been decided. Oh, yeah, and I've been exhorted to watch the "post-game" show. Wait a second. In what way does choosing the future leader of this country seem analogous to a football game? To whom is this a game?

I'm back in Lafayette after a difficult and exhausting trip to SC. I left Indianapolis in the late afternoon on Friday and started off my trip by having an anxiety attack because of my extremely cramped quarters. Given that I am just slightly above 4'11" it is a truly sad day when I don't have enough room. What about all of the normal-sized adults? The NWA (henceforth referred to as Northworst Airlines)flight attendants were remarkably unsympathetic and the woman who gave me her aisle seat did so grudgingly. Needless to say, the rest of the flight was miserable as I tried to regulate my breathing while enduring the glare of nearby passengers and the refusal of the flight attendants to give me any coffee. My trip was not off on the best foot.

NPR Morning Edition doesn't start up until 5am and since I'm up at 4am, well I have to get my news fix somewhere.  Tomorrow morning I'll think twice before tuning my television to CNN Headline News. Here's why:

In my Postmodern Rhetoric class, we had a fairly lengthy discussion of Marshall Alcorn's Changing the Subject in English Class: Discourse and the Construction of Desire. Unfortunately, the topic that I was most interested in discussing didn't emerge until the end of class (and I had a bit of difficulty being heard). My classmates were discussing the difficulties that arise when students make racist comments (or comments that you otherwise feel is inappropriate), either in class or within their writing. The question of assessment, as always, demanded much of our attention.

It may be more accurate to title this "why rhetoricat? why not femminista?" but...

1. Rhetoricat:

• because I am a feminist rhetorician, who was first attracted to rhetoric by Andrea Lunsford's Reclaiming Rhetorica
• because by adding a "t" I've merged my name, Cat, with what I study, rhetoric
• because I was trying to come up with a screen name for something and rhetorica was taken and after stumbling on rhetoricat it seemed like a good idea for a domain name

2. femminista:

• because it is the Italian word for feminist and I am an Italian-speaking feminist
• because I identify first and foremost with the label, feminist

3. not femminista:

• because the domain name "femminista" is dedicated to an organization that I've founded for third wave feminists, I did not want to put my personal blog on that domain