Pub Date : 2022-06-03DOI: 10.1080/07491409.2022.2053625
Rachelle L. Pavelko, Cory A. Barker
Abstract Though controversial due to their similarities to illegal pyramid schemes, multilevel marketing (MLM) companies annually generate billions of dollars and recruit millions of people, particularly women. The purpose of the present study is to assess how three major MLMs—It Works!, Young Living, and Younique—situate themselves online. We engage in a qualitative content analysis of these companies’ Web sites (including the language, visuals, and site navigation) to identify notable themes that emerge from online recruitment efforts. The analysis draws upon theoretical frameworks related to feminism, faith, and commodity activism as they intersect with neoliberal capitalism. The application of critiques of neoliberal feminism and commodity activism to an ignored but significant corner of modern capitalism shapes the development of a coding schema that unlocks a deeper understanding of how women are targeted by MLM promotional messaging.
{"title":"It Really Works! Qualitative Content Analysis of Multilevel Marketing Organizations’ Online Promotional Messaging and Recruitment Strategies","authors":"Rachelle L. Pavelko, Cory A. Barker","doi":"10.1080/07491409.2022.2053625","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/07491409.2022.2053625","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Though controversial due to their similarities to illegal pyramid schemes, multilevel marketing (MLM) companies annually generate billions of dollars and recruit millions of people, particularly women. The purpose of the present study is to assess how three major MLMs—It Works!, Young Living, and Younique—situate themselves online. We engage in a qualitative content analysis of these companies’ Web sites (including the language, visuals, and site navigation) to identify notable themes that emerge from online recruitment efforts. The analysis draws upon theoretical frameworks related to feminism, faith, and commodity activism as they intersect with neoliberal capitalism. The application of critiques of neoliberal feminism and commodity activism to an ignored but significant corner of modern capitalism shapes the development of a coding schema that unlocks a deeper understanding of how women are targeted by MLM promotional messaging.","PeriodicalId":46136,"journal":{"name":"Womens Studies in Communication","volume":"45 1","pages":"399 - 421"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2022-06-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48582482","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-06-03DOI: 10.1080/07491409.2022.2053624
J. Guo, Ziwei Zhang, Jinhong Song, Lu Jin, Duan Yu, Sara Liao
Abstract This article investigates three commercials for Libresse sanitary napkins that aired in China in the transnational brand’s marketing to counter menstrual taboos. Employing feminist critical discourse analysis (CDA), we interpret Libresse’s efforts in China as exemplary of the appropriation of femvertising, or women’s empowerment advertising. Our findings indicate that Libresse’s commercials attempted to eschew explicit menstrual stereotypes and taboos, emphasizing instead individual desires and autonomy, with an implicit heterosexist message intended to involve men in the agenda. Libresse’s femvertising strategies in China have been influenced by social and cultural factors—primarily, industry self-regulation, menstrual taboos, and the development of feminism. The commercials create a postfeminist discourse that has generated contradictory gender discourses, both liberating and constraining women in an elaborate dance that should be understood in relation to postfeminism, advertising, and global capitalism.
{"title":"Femvertising and Postfeminist Discourse: Advertising to Break Menstrual Taboos in China","authors":"J. Guo, Ziwei Zhang, Jinhong Song, Lu Jin, Duan Yu, Sara Liao","doi":"10.1080/07491409.2022.2053624","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/07491409.2022.2053624","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article investigates three commercials for Libresse sanitary napkins that aired in China in the transnational brand’s marketing to counter menstrual taboos. Employing feminist critical discourse analysis (CDA), we interpret Libresse’s efforts in China as exemplary of the appropriation of femvertising, or women’s empowerment advertising. Our findings indicate that Libresse’s commercials attempted to eschew explicit menstrual stereotypes and taboos, emphasizing instead individual desires and autonomy, with an implicit heterosexist message intended to involve men in the agenda. Libresse’s femvertising strategies in China have been influenced by social and cultural factors—primarily, industry self-regulation, menstrual taboos, and the development of feminism. The commercials create a postfeminist discourse that has generated contradictory gender discourses, both liberating and constraining women in an elaborate dance that should be understood in relation to postfeminism, advertising, and global capitalism.","PeriodicalId":46136,"journal":{"name":"Womens Studies in Communication","volume":"45 1","pages":"378 - 398"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2022-06-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42424130","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-04-13DOI: 10.1080/07491409.2021.2020195
Skye de Saint Felix, Lisa Corrigan
Abstract When President Donald Trump nominated Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court in July 2018, many Democrats initially opposed him. He became a much more controversial nominee when Dr. Christine Blasey Ford brought forward accusations that he sexually assaulted her in 1982. In his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Kavanaugh’s rhetorical style of predatory white masculinity was supported and encouraged by a chorus of Republican senators. Kavanaugh’s articulation of predatory white masculinity made white men victims, used women as pawns in white men’s innocence narrative, and enacted a partisan agenda to justify rage and nostalgia for a time when white male privilege was less scrutinized. But with the Kavanaugh confirmation, predatory white masculinity shifted norms and conventions about judicial temperament. His rhetorical style produced a shift in temperament, which augmented rage and grievance as the ideal temperament for men in power, especially when echoed by members of the Senate Judiciary Committee and then-President Trump.
{"title":"The Rhetorical Style of Predatory White Masculinity in Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s 2018 Testimony Before the Senate Judiciary Committee","authors":"Skye de Saint Felix, Lisa Corrigan","doi":"10.1080/07491409.2021.2020195","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/07491409.2021.2020195","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract When President Donald Trump nominated Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court in July 2018, many Democrats initially opposed him. He became a much more controversial nominee when Dr. Christine Blasey Ford brought forward accusations that he sexually assaulted her in 1982. In his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Kavanaugh’s rhetorical style of predatory white masculinity was supported and encouraged by a chorus of Republican senators. Kavanaugh’s articulation of predatory white masculinity made white men victims, used women as pawns in white men’s innocence narrative, and enacted a partisan agenda to justify rage and nostalgia for a time when white male privilege was less scrutinized. But with the Kavanaugh confirmation, predatory white masculinity shifted norms and conventions about judicial temperament. His rhetorical style produced a shift in temperament, which augmented rage and grievance as the ideal temperament for men in power, especially when echoed by members of the Senate Judiciary Committee and then-President Trump.","PeriodicalId":46136,"journal":{"name":"Womens Studies in Communication","volume":"45 1","pages":"293 - 315"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2022-04-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42016267","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-02-10DOI: 10.1080/07491409.2021.2020193
Meshell L. Sturgis, Ralina L. Joseph
Abstract Anti-Black and anti-woman animus is packed into brief and subtle communication exchanges including seemingly mundane moments like jokes and compliments. The lasting negative effects of microaggressions call for what we deem poetics of interruption, a Black feminist intervention that dynamically responds to interstices of oppression. Through the creative retelling of a conversation that leads up to and follows the microaggression “You’re the whitest Black person I know,” we demonstrate how the poetics of interruption holds interlocutors accountable to structural and interpersonal power imbalances through purposeful dialogue. Practicing a poetics of interruption refigures language with an anti-sexist, anti-racist aim to refute the passive-aggressive postracial language of microaggressions.
{"title":"“You’re the Whitest Black Person I Know”: Speaking Back to Microaggressions Through the Poetics of Interruption","authors":"Meshell L. Sturgis, Ralina L. Joseph","doi":"10.1080/07491409.2021.2020193","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/07491409.2021.2020193","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Anti-Black and anti-woman animus is packed into brief and subtle communication exchanges including seemingly mundane moments like jokes and compliments. The lasting negative effects of microaggressions call for what we deem poetics of interruption, a Black feminist intervention that dynamically responds to interstices of oppression. Through the creative retelling of a conversation that leads up to and follows the microaggression “You’re the whitest Black person I know,” we demonstrate how the poetics of interruption holds interlocutors accountable to structural and interpersonal power imbalances through purposeful dialogue. Practicing a poetics of interruption refigures language with an anti-sexist, anti-racist aim to refute the passive-aggressive postracial language of microaggressions.","PeriodicalId":46136,"journal":{"name":"Womens Studies in Communication","volume":"45 1","pages":"358 - 377"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2022-02-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45230188","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-19DOI: 10.1080/07491409.2021.2020194
Harry J. Hudome, Sharon R. Mazzarella
Abstract During her years in the White House, media access to Malia Obama was carefully regulated by her parents, resulting in largely positive, one-dimensional news coverage. Critically analyzing news coverage of Malia Obama during her transition from first daughter to independent young woman college student in the post–White House years of 2016 to 2019, we identify two sets of competing media frames—celebrity girl versus ordinary girl and can-do girl versus Ophelia girl—that paradoxically constructed Malia during these years. We argue that, through these tensions, the press worked to challenge, even undermine, the high-achieving, successful Black girl narrative cultivated during the Obama White House years. The result is a re-celebrification and re-racialization of Malia that evidences a disturbingly regressive and almost structurally retributional tone that differs from coverage of recent White first daughters.
{"title":"The Re-Celebrification of Malia Obama: Girlhood, Race, and Celebrity in News Coverage","authors":"Harry J. Hudome, Sharon R. Mazzarella","doi":"10.1080/07491409.2021.2020194","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/07491409.2021.2020194","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract During her years in the White House, media access to Malia Obama was carefully regulated by her parents, resulting in largely positive, one-dimensional news coverage. Critically analyzing news coverage of Malia Obama during her transition from first daughter to independent young woman college student in the post–White House years of 2016 to 2019, we identify two sets of competing media frames—celebrity girl versus ordinary girl and can-do girl versus Ophelia girl—that paradoxically constructed Malia during these years. We argue that, through these tensions, the press worked to challenge, even undermine, the high-achieving, successful Black girl narrative cultivated during the Obama White House years. The result is a re-celebrification and re-racialization of Malia that evidences a disturbingly regressive and almost structurally retributional tone that differs from coverage of recent White first daughters.","PeriodicalId":46136,"journal":{"name":"Womens Studies in Communication","volume":"45 1","pages":"338 - 357"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2022-01-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48003567","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-02DOI: 10.1080/07491409.2022.2025531
Margaret A. Murray
Abstract This article examines one new media source that was shared in the Academic Mothers Facebook group: Emily Oster’s parenting newsletter. Oster’s newsletter specifically focused on parental decision making during the COVID-19 pandemic. This article focuses on the messages and themes in the newsletter during the first six months of the pandemic in the United States. That time was marked by new and increased uncertainty for parents around family health and well-being, creating a particular need for parenting information and advice. Through critical rhetorical criticism, five main themes emerged from an analysis of the newsletter: disruption, process-centered decision making, a recentering of parents, strong but moderated emotion, and a call for collective action. Overall, Oster’s newsletter rejects intensive mothering and parental determinism by offering more nuanced parental decision making. This is particularly important for mothers because they bear a disproportionate share of the parenting load, especially regarding risk.
{"title":"Calm in the Storm: Emily Oster’s Parenting Newsletter During COVID-19","authors":"Margaret A. Murray","doi":"10.1080/07491409.2022.2025531","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/07491409.2022.2025531","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article examines one new media source that was shared in the Academic Mothers Facebook group: Emily Oster’s parenting newsletter. Oster’s newsletter specifically focused on parental decision making during the COVID-19 pandemic. This article focuses on the messages and themes in the newsletter during the first six months of the pandemic in the United States. That time was marked by new and increased uncertainty for parents around family health and well-being, creating a particular need for parenting information and advice. Through critical rhetorical criticism, five main themes emerged from an analysis of the newsletter: disruption, process-centered decision making, a recentering of parents, strong but moderated emotion, and a call for collective action. Overall, Oster’s newsletter rejects intensive mothering and parental determinism by offering more nuanced parental decision making. This is particularly important for mothers because they bear a disproportionate share of the parenting load, especially regarding risk.","PeriodicalId":46136,"journal":{"name":"Womens Studies in Communication","volume":"45 1","pages":"70 - 88"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41983109","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-02DOI: 10.1080/07491409.2022.2041949
Heather Adams
{"title":"Queering Romantic Engagement in the Postal Age: A Rhetorical Education","authors":"Heather Adams","doi":"10.1080/07491409.2022.2041949","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/07491409.2022.2041949","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46136,"journal":{"name":"Womens Studies in Communication","volume":"45 1","pages":"111 - 112"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42008860","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-02DOI: 10.1080/07491409.2021.2021773
Tennley A. Vik, Jocelyn M. DeGroot, Jennifer L. Lanterman
Abstract Much computer-mediated communication (CMC) literature has focused on how technology can influence interpersonal relationships and, in turn, lived experiences in social networking sites (SNSs) and offline. Throughout this article we aim to provide a foundation for readers engaging in research on SNSs, specifically Facebook—though our findings here are movable to other text-based platforms, such as Twitter and Reddit. We used a private/hidden Facebook group to facilitate and store the contributions of a mother–professor research collaborative. We focused on autoethnographic and ethnographic narratives and artifacts to collaborate with other academic mothers during the COVID-19 pandemic. This group created a data set for all of the mother–professors interacting in the group on Facebook. This article details some of the methodological strengths and limitations associated with engaging in online platforms and categorizing or coding data. We aim to provide readers with suggestions and best practices geared toward moving any publication using a text-based online platform toward rigorous initial setup, data collection, and data analysis.
{"title":"Creating and Using Facebook Groups for Collaborative (Auto)ethnography and Ethnographic Sensemaking","authors":"Tennley A. Vik, Jocelyn M. DeGroot, Jennifer L. Lanterman","doi":"10.1080/07491409.2021.2021773","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/07491409.2021.2021773","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Much computer-mediated communication (CMC) literature has focused on how technology can influence interpersonal relationships and, in turn, lived experiences in social networking sites (SNSs) and offline. Throughout this article we aim to provide a foundation for readers engaging in research on SNSs, specifically Facebook—though our findings here are movable to other text-based platforms, such as Twitter and Reddit. We used a private/hidden Facebook group to facilitate and store the contributions of a mother–professor research collaborative. We focused on autoethnographic and ethnographic narratives and artifacts to collaborate with other academic mothers during the COVID-19 pandemic. This group created a data set for all of the mother–professors interacting in the group on Facebook. This article details some of the methodological strengths and limitations associated with engaging in online platforms and categorizing or coding data. We aim to provide readers with suggestions and best practices geared toward moving any publication using a text-based online platform toward rigorous initial setup, data collection, and data analysis.","PeriodicalId":46136,"journal":{"name":"Womens Studies in Communication","volume":"45 1","pages":"10 - 25"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42081174","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-02DOI: 10.1080/07491409.2022.2041937
S. Blithe, Jessica M. F. Hughes, Rebecca Mercado Jones, Rachel E. Silverman, A. Wolfe
Abstract The novel coronavirus global pandemic—and the associated disease it causes (COVID-19)—swept the world in 2020, completely changing life as it once was. Academic mothers experienced COVID-19 as an unanticipated crash of simultaneous parenting responsibilities, remote teaching, and continued pressure to produce research. In this forum, four academic mothers present vignettes that represent their experiences navigating privilege and risk while parenting and professing during the COVID-19 pandemic.
{"title":"Special Issue Forum: Navigating Privilege and Risk: Mothering and Professing During COVID-19","authors":"S. Blithe, Jessica M. F. Hughes, Rebecca Mercado Jones, Rachel E. Silverman, A. Wolfe","doi":"10.1080/07491409.2022.2041937","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/07491409.2022.2041937","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The novel coronavirus global pandemic—and the associated disease it causes (COVID-19)—swept the world in 2020, completely changing life as it once was. Academic mothers experienced COVID-19 as an unanticipated crash of simultaneous parenting responsibilities, remote teaching, and continued pressure to produce research. In this forum, four academic mothers present vignettes that represent their experiences navigating privilege and risk while parenting and professing during the COVID-19 pandemic.","PeriodicalId":46136,"journal":{"name":"Womens Studies in Communication","volume":"45 1","pages":"89 - 110"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48417106","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
京公网安备 11010802042870号
京ICP备2023020795号-1
扫码关注我们
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：