Unruly Rhetorics: Protest, Persuasion, and Publics

Unruly Rhetorics:Protest, Persuasion, and Publics Katelyn Lusher Unruly Rhetorics: Protest, Persuasion, and Publics Jonathan Alexander, Susan C. Jarratt, and Nancy Welch, eds. University of Pittsburgh Press, 2018. 326 pp. Since the 2016 election, activism and protests have garnered increasing media attention. At the same time, the conduct of individuals involved in social movements is intensely scrutinized by politicians and the public at large who label these protests obscene, unruly, or even violent. The edited collection Unruly Rhetorics attempts to address the fraught implications of "civility" in an age characterized by political tension and the rise of neoliberalism. Community Literacy Journal readers will find this collection to be an important resource for community organizing and deliberative rhetoric as many chapters discuss the rhetorical power of dissent. Activists and community organizers will also find that Unruly Rhetorics gives credence to the struggles they face every day in the public eye as they fight for equality and justice. Part I, "Bringing Back the Body," begins with Dana Cloud's "Feminist Body Rhetoric in the #Unrulymob, Texas, 2013," a powerful analysis of feminist embodied protest in opposition to a draconian anti-abortion law that Texas legislators attempted to pass in 2013. In these protests, activists reclaimed the labels #unrulymob or #feministarmy on Twitter after Texas Republicans attempted to denigrated them. Republicans claimed that activists would throw feces and tampons at legislators in protest; in response to these false accusations, activists remixed the famous "Come and Take It" flag from the 1835 Texas Revolution. The original flag, a classic symbol of defiance in Texas, depicts the "Come and Take It" slogan below the image of a star and cannon. The remixed version replaces the cannon with tampons and uteruses in defiant response to Republican fears. Cloud analyzes these demonstrations as evidence that traditional notions of the female body dictate that women must assume a private, caretaking role and never allow their bodies to intrude upon politics. Cloud argues, "The social denial of the body is the fantasy of a state and economic system in denial of the ethics and politics of care. The monstrosity of bleeding, fecund, yet uncontrollable women in the decorous setting of the Texas legislature fundamentally challenges that fantasy" (40). Protesting women packed their bodies into the Texas legislature, [End Page 121] cheering, clapping, and chanting so it was impossible for legislators to speak and pass the anti-abortion law. Wendy Davis, a Texas legislator, stood for hours to filibuster the bill, refusing to sit and making her protesting body visible to everyone in the courtroom. The bill eventually did not pass due to Davis and the protestors' "unruly" bodies disrupting the legislative process. Cloud's powerful example of what it means to assert bodily autonomy sets the stage for other examples of unruly bodies throughout the rest of the collection. In chapter two, Joyce Rain Anderson discusses embodied rhetoric through indigenous protest demonstrations in "Walking with Relatives: Indigenous Bodies of Protest." Anderson argues that indigenous protest is deeply rooted to place; as she states, "Disconnecting the body from the land is directly connected to the way maps of the 'new world' were constructed showing vacant spaces" (47). Indigenous protest is also wrapped in tradition. For example, Anderson uses the example of flash mob round dances during the Idle No More movement as evidence that bodies are instrumental in demonstrating indigenous dissent. Other indigenous protesters such as Chief Teresa Spence have protested reservation conditions by drinking only fish broth, which Anderson argues is "embodying cultural tradition" since fish broth has historically sustained starving indigenous communities. Protesting indigenous bodies, she states, are what help indigenous tribes reclaim and maintain their land. Jonathan Sterne moves to student protests in chapter three, "A Groove We Can Move To: The Sound & Sense of Quebec's Manifs Casseroles, Spring 2013." Sterne writes about the student strikes which took place in Quebec in response to the government's proposal to dramatically increase university tuition. Manifs sasseroles, shorthand for street protests, took place every night during this period as students took to Montreal's streets banging pots and pans making their anger heard. In the process, the students blocked street traffic and were labeled a disruptive force. Sterne...