Gender and Reproductive Rights Talk

Lia Alexandra Mandaglio, currently a law student at the George Washington Law School, has posted Speaking Across the Divide: A Functional Grammar Analysis of Feminist and Masculist Reproductive Rights Rhetoric in the United States on SSRN. Here is the abstract.

This paper applies Systemic Functional Grammar and Critical Discourse Analysis to assess the linguistic choices of feminist and masculist reproductive rights rhetoric in the United States. It explains these methodologies and provides a discursive history of the reproductive rights movement. Publications of advocacy groups and the mass media are analyzed as data of current rhetorical trends. These interpretations conclude that female-affirmative rhetoric offsets contemporary feminist efforts by marginalizing men and excluding considerations of paternity. This paper suggests that in solely emphasizing women’s procreative rights, such feminist rhetoric potentially renders women to the role of primary parental agent, reinforces traditional sex-stereotypes, and incites inter-sex antagonism.

Download the paper from SSRN at the link. Ms. Mandaglio is also the author of earlier interesting work, including Hannah More, the Conventionalist, and Mary Robinson, the Radical: Differing Feminist Perspectives on 19th Century Women's Progress, Purity and Power, 2 Lethbridge Undergraduate Research Journal (2007).

And check out this odd "6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon" sort of connection. I blogged about Hudson Taylor, the wrestler/magician elsewhere a few weeks ago, based on a piece in the Washington Post, without paying any particular attention to the name or occupation of his fiancee. As I did a search on Ms. Mandaglio's name while preparing this post to turn up what else she might have written, what other info should appear but yes--that article about Hudson Taylor, the wrestler/magician, and his fiancee, Lia Mandaglio, GW law student. Ah, magicology!