Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-fqc5m Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T21:14:31.405Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Speaking across the divide: a Functional Grammar analysis of feminist and masculist reproductive rights rhetoric

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 February 2011

Lia Alexandra Mandaglio*
Affiliation:
George Washington University Law School

Abstract

This article applies Systemic Functional Grammar and Critical Discourse Analysis to assess the linguistic choices of feminist and masculist reproductive rights rhetoric. It explains these methodologies and provides a discursive history of the reproductive rights movement. Publications of advocacy groups and the mass media are analysed as data of current rhetorical trends. These interpretations conclude that female-affirmative rhetoric offsets contemporary feminist efforts by marginalising men and excluding considerations of paternity. This article suggests that in solely emphasising 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.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Babcock, Barbara A., Freedman, Anne E., Norton, Eleanor Holmes and Ross, Susan T. (1975) Sex Discrimination and the Law: Causes and Remedies. Boston: Little, Brown.Google Scholar
Franks, Angela (2005) Margaret Sanger's Eugenic Legacy: The Control of Female Fertility. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc.Google Scholar
Law, Sylvia (1984) ‘Rethinking Sex and the Constitution’, University of Pennsylvania Law Review 132(5): 9551040.Google Scholar
Matthiessen, Christian M. I. M. and Halliday, M. A. K. (1997) ‘Systemic Functional Grammar: A First Step into the Theory’. The Systemic Meaning Modelling Group, Macquarie University, Sidney <http://minerva.ling.mq.edu.au/resource/VirtuallLibrary/Publications/sfg_firststep/SFG%20intro%20New.html>..>Google Scholar
Melling, Louise (2007) ‘The World We Want’. American Civil Liberties Union. <www.aclu.org/reproductiverights/abortion/29907res20070122.html> (accessed 22 January 2007).+(accessed+22+January+2007).>Google Scholar
Sanger, Margaret (2001–2008) ‘The Morality of Birth Control’. American Rhetoric. <www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/margaretsangermoralityofbirthcontrol.htm>..>Google Scholar
Thompson, Geoff (2007) Introducing Functional Grammar, 2nd edn.London: Arnold.Google Scholar