The “promiscuous audience” controversy and the emergence of the early woman's rights movement

Datos Bibliográficos

ID9237453
AutoresSusan Zaeske (University of Wisconsin–Madison, autor de correspondencia)
Año1995
Volumen81
Número2
Páginas191-207
Fecha de publicación1995-05-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaQuarterly Journal of Speech (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0033-5630 • E-ISSN: 1479-5779
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00335639509384108
OpenAlexW2029699208
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas11
Referencias citadas16

For too long we have conflated the rhetoric of the early women activists with that of the organized woman's rights and suffrage movements. In establishing their right to speak from the public platform during the 1830s, activist women did not rely on natural law or constitutional appeals. Rather, in combating the prohibition against addressing "promiscuous audiences," they employed a rhetoric of gendered morality that emphasized the special nature of female benevolence. Although well adapted to the exigences of the 1830s, early feminist emphasis on female benevolence as a justification for addressing "promiscuous audiences"—and for other forms of activity—had important implications that fettered women's efforts to engage in overtly political action during the 1840s

Action (physics) · Feminism · Morality · Natural (archaeology) · Political science · Politics · Rhetoric · Sociology · Suffrage · American Constitutional Law and Politics · History · Law · Literature: history, themes, analysis · Rhetoric and Communication Studies