Prettier Doll
Rhetoric, Discourse, and Ordinary Democracy
1st Edition
Published on 22. July 2007
317 pages
978-0-8173-8023-6 (ISBN)
Description
Essays in the The Prettier Doll focus on the same local controversy: in 2001,a third-grade girl in Colorado submitted an experiment to the school science fair. She asked 30 adults and 30 fifth-graders which of two Barbie dolls was prettier. One doll was black, the other white, and each wore a different colored dress. All of the adults picked the Barbie in the purple dress, while nearly all of the fifth graders picked the white Barbie. When the student's experiment was banned an uproar resulted that spread to the national media. School board meetings and other public exchanges highlighted the potent intersection of local and national social concerns: education, censorship, science, racism, and tensions in foundation values such as liberty, democracy, and free speech. For the authors of these essays, the exchanges that arose from "e,Barbiegate"e, illustrate vividly the role of rhetoric at the grassroots level, fundamental to civic judgment in a democratic state and at the core of "e,ordinary democracy."e,
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Karen Tracy | James P. McDaniel | Bruce E. Gronebeck
The Prettier Doll
Rhetoric, Discourse, and Ordinary Democracy
Book
09/2007
The University of Alabama Press
€81.90
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Content
- Intro
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- I. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS
- 1. Introduction: A Moment of Ordinary Democracy
- 2. Through the Looking Glass and Back: Democratic Theory,Rhetoric, and Barbiegate
- II. THE BARBIEGATE DISCOURSE
- 3. Race, Liberalism, and Barbiegate Discourse:A Dilemma- Centered Rhetorical Analysis
- 4. Political Performances in Public Proceedings:The Social Dramas of Barbiegate
- 5. Darkness on the Edge of Town: On the Interface betweenCommunicational and Racial Ideologies
- 6. Marking and Shifting Lines in the Sand:Discursive Moves of Ordinary Democracy
- 7. Chairing Democracy: Psychology, Time, and Negotiating the Institution
- III. AFTER WORDS
- 8. Understanding Ordinary Democracy:The Intersection of Discourse and Rhetorical Analysis
- 9. Amateur Hour: Knowing What to Love in Ordinary Democracy
- Appendix A: Transcripts of BVSD Speeches
- Appendix B: Newspaper and School District Documents
- Contributors
- Index
