Journal 3 (486 Words)

For our project, I chose the word exigence in relation to feminism. My artifacts include a Facebook post, a picture of a sign from the Tallahassee women's march, and a text describing a court case in 1837 that was ruled in the woman's favor. Each one of theses pictures is a separate example of rhetoric in it's own way.

The text I have is of a court case between a man and a woman in 1837. The man had kissed the young lady "as a joke" and in turn, she had bitten off a piece of his nose. To my surprise, the judge said she was "fully entitled to bit off his nose, if she so pleases." This shows us that rhetoric is not only persuasive, but informative. In this case, the judge informs the man that she may do as she pleases if you do something to her without her will. 

The picture of the sign from the women's march describes the first women's rights conventions held in Seneca Falls, NY held by a young woman in 18th century style.  It was at this convention in 1848 that The Declaration of sentients was written. One of the sentiments, written on the board, says, "He has created a false public sentiment by giving the world a different code of sentiment for men and women, by which moral delinquencies which exclude women from society are not only tolerated but deemed of little account by man." This is basically calling the world out on how we have a different "rule book" for men and women. This creates a rhetorical situation because it makes women feel a need for equality. This teaches us that rhetoric can come through both text and visuals. The text gives you a background and her clothing shows us how long we've been fighting for equality. This also shows that rhetoric is a moving, living thing.

My last artifact was a Facebook post about the recent women's march on Tallahassee. The post was in response to people calling the marches across the nation pointless and a waste of time. This post shows that rhetoric is also made to show the power of discourse. The goal is to make the audience feel something through effective argumentation.

The trend across my artifacts would have to be information. Each one of my artifacts holds dome type of information about feminism/how to properly use it. The roles of each of these authors are apparent in my artifacts. All of them were well circulated (enough to be remembered since 1837), design of the (picture of) the poster is key. It's eye-catching, draws attention, and makes people want to read it. They all have affordances according to their nature. The poster has been especially applicable to this because the poster was meant to light enough to walk with but big enough to read. In this way, its movable, big, and touchable.