Feminist Activists, Feminist Agency, and the Composition Classroom

272 Pages·2015·14.63 MB·English

Florida State University Libraries
Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School
2015
Looking Outside to Empower within:
Feminist Activists, Feminist Agency, and
the Composition Classroom
Christine Martorana
Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected]
FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY
COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES

LOOKING OUTSIDE TO EMPOWER WITHIN:
FEMINIST ACTIVISTS, FEMINIST AGENCY, AND THE COMPOSITION CLASSROOM

By
CHRISTINE MARTORANA

A Dissertation submitted to the
Department of English
in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy

2015

© 2015 Christine Martorana
Christine Martorana defended this dissertation on June 2, 2015.
The members of the supervisory committee were:

Kristie Fleckenstein
Professor Directing Dissertation

Pat Villeneuve
University Representative

Kathleen Blake Yancey
Committee Member

Linda Saladin-Adams
Committee Member

The Graduate School has verified and approved the above-named committee members, and
certifies that the dissertation has been approved in accordance with university requirements.

ii
The completion of this project is a testament to the overabundance of support and love in
my life. I am thankful to God for providing me with the opportunity and means to attend
graduate school. I know this is a luxury and a privilege, and it is my desire to use this education
to honor and glorify the one who gave me this gift. God also put very specific people in my life
to help me on this path: Dr. Fleckenstein – You are a selfless, generous, kind woman. I count
myself incredibly blessed that you have been my mentor for the past four years. I have depended
a great deal upon you, and never once have you made me feel like an inconvenience or a burden.
Instead, you liberally gave of your time, insights, and energies. Thank you for showing me what
it means to be both a respected and respectful professor, colleague, and scholar. Dr. Yancey, Dr.
Saladin-Adams, and Dr. Villeneuve – Thank you for serving as members of my dissertation
committee. I appreciate the time and perspectives you brought to this project, using your own
individual areas of expertise to help me refine my own. Kathe, Cath, and Kehinde – Thank you
for allowing me to use your work and your activism throughout this project. You are smart,
passionate women. I am a stronger woman and a more deeply rooted feminist as a result of
working with and learning from you. Mom, Dad, Chuck, and Alyssa – Mom, thank you for the
countless encouraging words, phone calls, and cards. Dad, thank you for the many times you
picked me up at the bus stop and for always being so excited to see me. Chuck, thank you for so
often brightening my days with laughter, in only the way you can. Alyssa, thank you for
traveling with me to Knoxville and for being my accountability partner. Lucas – As always, you
are my biggest and most consistent supporter. The PhD journey is not an easy one to travel; it is
full of late nights, early mornings, anxieties, uncertainties, and celebrations. Through it all, you
were my grounding presence, reminding me to take care of myself and trust the process. You are
my perfect partner, and I love you.
iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Tables .................................................................................................................................. v
List of Figures ................................................................................................................................ vi
Abstract ........................................................................................................................................ viii

1. DESCRIPTION OF PROJECT .................................................................................................. 1

2. CASE STUDY #1: THE GUERRILLA GIRLS ...................................................................... 35

3. CASE STUDY #2: HERE. IN MY HEAD ................................................................................ 97

4. CASE STUDY #3: A WOMAN’S REPRIEVE ....................................................................... 146

5. CONCLUSIONS, IMPLICATIONS, AND LOOKING AHEAD ......................................... 195

APPENDICES ............................................................................................................................ 224

A. QUESTIONS FOR INTERVIEW WITH KATHE KOLLWITZ .......................................... 224
B. QUESTIONS FOR INTERVIEW WITH CATH ELMS ....................................................... 227
C. QUESTIONS FOR INTERVIEW WITH KEHINDE SPENCER ......................................... 229
D. DATA CODING SAMPLE FOR CONFESSIONS OF THE GUERRILLA GIRLS .............. 232
E. DEFINITIONS AND TRAITS OF STRATEGY TYPES ..................................................... 236
F. PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE ACTIVISTS’ WORK IN MY RESEARCH .................. 239

References ................................................................................................................................... 242

Biographical Sketch .................................................................................................................... 262

iv
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Percentages across entire body of Guerrilla Girl work ................................................... 37
Table 2: Percentages across entire body of Guerrilla Girl work according to strategy type ........ 38
Table 3: Percentages of strategy types across entire body of Guerrilla Girl work ....................... 38
Table 4: Percentages across Here. In My Head .......................................................................... 104
Table 5: Percentages across Here. In My Head according to strategy type ................................ 105
Table 6: Percentages of strategy types across Here. In My Head ............................................... 138
Table 7: Percentages across A Woman’s Reprieve ..................................................................... 151
Table 8: Percentages across A Woman’s Reprieve according to strategy type ........................... 152

v
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1 U.S. Senate billboard ...................................................................................................... 47

Figure 2 Metropolitan Museum of Art poster ............................................................................... 48

Figure 3 Mammary gland game .................................................................................................... 52

Figure 4 Interactive street banner ................................................................................................. 53

Figure 5 Downloadable Guerrilla Girl sticker .............................................................................. 54

Figure 6 Poster that encourages viewers to contact local museums ............................................. 56

Figure 7 Guerrilla Girl version of Susanna and the Elders ........................................................... 67

Figure 8 Scrapbook page .............................................................................................................. 73

Figure 9 Comic strip ..................................................................................................................... 73

Figure 10 Stereotype eradication kit ............................................................................................. 74

Figure 11 Mobile billboard ........................................................................................................... 76

Figure 12 Billboard in Hollywood, California .............................................................................. 76

Figure 13 Poster on building wall ................................................................................................. 78

Figure 14 Handwriting showcases updates to the 1989 Guerrilla Girl poster .............................. 79

Figure 15 Poster with handwriting ................................................................................................ 80

Figure 16 “Who Needs Feminism?” response ............................................................................. 81

Figure 17 Guerrilla Girls’ love letters and hate mail .................................................................... 82

Figure 18 Post from Guerrilla Girl Facebook page ...................................................................... 84

Figure 19 Kathe on stage during a live gig ................................................................................... 88

Figure 20 Kathe away from the podium ....................................................................................... 90

Figure 21 Zine #13 page background ......................................................................................... 112

Figure 22 Zine #12 page background ......................................................................................... 113

vi
Figure 23 Lists from Zine #4 ...................................................................................................... 116

Figure 24 Cath invites audience response ................................................................................... 127

Figure 25 Zine #10 introduction ................................................................................................. 128

Figure 26 Zine #11 introduction ................................................................................................. 129

Figure 27 Cath and Toby ............................................................................................................ 132

Figure 28 Cath’s letter to shyness ............................................................................................... 133

Figure 29 Cath wearing a hat ...................................................................................................... 133

Figure 30 Handwritten edits in middle of sentence .................................................................... 136

Figure 31 Handwritten edits at end of line .................................................................................. 136

Figure 32 Handwritten edits to obscure parts of text .................................................................. 137

Figure 33 “If You Know God” photo ......................................................................................... 153

Figure 34 “I See” photo .............................................................................................................. 153

Figure 35 “Yes I Will Stand” photo ............................................................................................ 153

Figure 36 “Black Magic” photo .................................................................................................. 153

Figure 37 Photo collage .............................................................................................................. 167

Figure 38 “Warrior Woman” photo ............................................................................................ 168

Figure 39 Pan-African flag ......................................................................................................... 169

Figure 40 Colored flower ............................................................................................................ 178

Figure 41 Colored earrings ......................................................................................................... 179

Figure 42 Colored dress .............................................................................................................. 179

vii
ABSTRACT

This dissertation takes as its starting point a recurring problem within the composition
classroom: women writers silencing themselves in compliance with patriarchal expectations that
frame the good girl role. In the process, these students subordinate, if not entirely erase, their
own feminist agency. The disempowerment of women within the writing classroom is especially
worrisome given that the NCTE Mission Statement defines one of the main aims of this
classroom as helping students use “language to construct personal and public worlds and to
achieve full participation in society.” If the composition classroom aims to help students develop
and practice rhetorical agency, how can this goal be successfully met when women students are
implicitly and explicitly taught to adopt a classroom persona of silence?
To address the problem of the good girl identity within the composition classroom, I turn
to an exploration of feminist agency enacted beyond academia. Women have not – perhaps have
never – been completely disempowered or completely silenced. Historically and currently,
women have developed innovative and effective ways of performing feminist agency in social
spaces beyond the classroom. Accordingly, this dissertation asks, “What strategies for fostering
feminist agency in the composition classroom might be derived from the practice of feminist
agency deployed outside of the classroom?” To answer this question, I first identify the visual,
linguistic, and embodied strategies employed by feminist activists beyond classroom walls. Next,
I consider how the activists use these strategies to support enactments of feminist agency within
their specific spheres. Finally, I analyze these enactments in order to discern specific strategies
we can use for fostering feminist agency within the composition classroom.
This dissertation consists of three case study analyses. The first analysis focuses on The
Guerrilla Girls, a feminist art activist group. The second examines Here. In My Head, a feminist
perzine, and the third considers the feminist music album A Woman’s Reprieve. Within each case
study, I conduct first-hand interviews with the participants and textual analyses of the activists’
work.
This analysis of the rhetorical practices of feminist activists has revealed three valuable
conclusions regarding feminist agency. 1) Effective feminist agency, understood as action that
challenges rather than perpetuates patriarchal ideologies, begins with the personal and circulates
beyond the self. 2) Choice, self-determination, action, and audience participation are central
tenets to effective enactments of feminist agency. 3) One overarching goal of feminist activists is
viii
to promote a more inclusive reality, one that values women and their experiences/perspectives
within the public sphere. These conclusions call on us to consider fascinating avenues through
which we might foster feminist agency within the composition classroom. Specifically, my study
proposes that we can foster feminist agency within the classroom by emphasizing its personal,
active, public, and collaborative characteristics, and I offer specific pedagogical means for doing
so.
ix