Occupying a Third Place: Pro-Life Feminism, Legible Politics, and the Edge of Women's Liberation
Loading...
Date
2020-12-08
Authors
Strait, Laura
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
This dissertation reads pro-life feminism as a break from traditional public perceptions of feminist thought. Through a variety of methodological analyses, it engages three case studies to answer (1) How does pro-life feminism persist as a movement and idea? And (2) What does the existence of pro-life feminists mean for the discursive boundaries of pro-choice feminism? This project included archival research on major feminist, anti-feminist, and pro-life feminist organizations, as well as long-form interviews with founding members of the pro-life feminist organizations. First, a critical discourse analysis of the 2017 Women’s March on Washington in regard to the removal of pro-life feminist group New Wave Feminists’ publicized removal as march organizers reveals discursive boundaries of contemporary feminist activism. Next, an evaluation of pro-life feminism’s coopting of “feminist foremothers,” Susan B. Anthony in particular, concludes that pro-life feminists utilize the mechanisms of producing history through commemoration to sustain a shared internal history that diverges from professional historical accounts of the suffragette. Finally, a cross-platform analysis of pro-life feminism’s online social life points to the future of fringe social organization through social media and the writable web. The study concludes with a discussion on the social space between public and private spheres (as theorized by Arendt, Habermas, Benhabib, and Butler) as the locus for pro-life feminism to persist while simultaneously undermining and constituting the philosophical boundaries of “mainstream” feminism.
Description
Keywords
Critical Media Studies, Feminism, Feminist History, Feminist Media Studies, New Media, Reproductive Justice