Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T16:48:59.017Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Contradiction as Agency: Self-Determination, Transcendence, and Counter-Imagination in Third Wave Feminism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2020

Valerie R. Renegar  and
Stacey K. Sowards
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This essay examines the contradictions often found in third wave feminist texts that function as strategic choices that may shape, foster, and enhance an individual's sense of agency. Many third wave feminists utilize contradiction as a way to understand emergent identities, to develop new ways of thinking, and to imagine new forms of social action. Agency, then, stems from the use of contradiction as a means of self-determination and identity, of transcendence of seemingly forced or dichotomous choices, and counter-imaginations of a better future.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Hypatia , Volume 24 , Issue 2 , Spring 2009 , pp. 1 - 20
Copyright
Copyright © 2009 by Valerie R. Renegar and Stacey K. Sowards

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

Alfonso, Rita, and Trigilio, Jo. 1997. Surfing the third wave: A dialogue between two third wave feminists. Hypatia 12 (3): 7–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alliance of Rhetoric Societies. 2003. Conference on the status and future of rhetorical studies, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL.http://www.comm.umn.edu/ARS/ (accessed October 15, 2003).Google Scholar
Anderson, Dana. 2004. Questioning the motives of habituated action: Burke and Bourdieu on practice. Philosophy and Rhetoric 37 (3): 255–274.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anzaldúa, Gloria. 1987. Borderlands/la frontera: The new mestiza. San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books.Google Scholar
Bail, Kathy, ed. 1996. DIY feminism. St. Leonards, NSW, Australia: Allen and Unwin, pp. 3–16.Google Scholar
Bailey, Cathryn. 1997. Making waves and drawing lines: The politics of defining the vicissitudes of feminism. Hypatia 12 (3): 17–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baumgardner, Jennifer, and Richards, Amy. 2000. Manifesta: Young women, feminism, and the future. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.Google Scholar
Baumgardner, Jennifer, and Richards, Amy. 2005. Grassroots: A field guide for feminist activism. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.Google Scholar
Baxter, Leslie A. 2004. Dialogues of relating. In Dialogue: Theorizing difference in communication studies, eds. Anderson, Rob, Baxter, Leslie A., and Cissna, Kenneth N.Thousand Oaks, Calif: Sage Publications, pp. 107–124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boswell, Maia. 2001. Sexism, ageism, and disability: (Re)constructing agency through (re)writing personal narrative. Women and Language 24 (2): 47–51.Google Scholar
Bright, Susie. 2003. Mommy's little girl: On sex, motherhood, porn, and cherry pie. New York: Thunder's Mouth Press.Google Scholar
Byers, Michele. 2003. Buffy the vampire slayer: The next generation of television. In Catching a wave: Reclaiming feminism for the 21st century, eds. Dicker, Rory and Piepmeier, Alison. Boston: Northeastern University Press, pp. 171–187.Google Scholar
Campbell, Karlyn Kohrs. 1973. The rhetoric of women's liberation: “An oxymoron.” Quarterly Journal of Speech 59 (1): 74–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Campbell, Karlyn Kohrs. 1989. Man cannot speak for her: A critical study of early feminist rhetoric, Vol. 1. Westport, Conn: Praeger.Google Scholar
Campbell, Karlyn Kohrs. 2005. Agency: Promiscuous and protean. Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies 2 (1): 1–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Daly, Mary. 1992. Outercourse: The be‐dazzling voyage. San Francisco: Harper.Google Scholar
Daly, Mary, and Caputi, Jane. 1987. Webster's first new intergalactic wickedary of the English language. Boston: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
DeLombard, Jeannine. 1995. Femmenism. In To be real: Telling the truth and changing the face of feminism, ed. Walker, Rebecca. New York: Anchor Books, pp. 21–33.Google Scholar
Detloff, Madelyn. 1997. Mean spirits: The politics of contempt between feminist generations. Hypatia 12 (3): 76–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dicker, Rory, and Piepmeier, Alison. 2003. Introduction. In Catching a wave: Reclaiming feminism for the 21st century, eds. Dicker, Rory and Piepmeier, Alison. Boston: Northeastern University Press, pp. 3–28.Google Scholar
Emirbayer, Mustafa, and Mische, Ann. 1998. What is agency? American Journal of Sociology 103 (4): 962–1023.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferguson, Ann. 1997. Moral responsibility and social change: A new theory of self. Hypatia 12 (3): 116–141.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Findlen, Barbara, ed. 1995. Listen up: Voices from the next feminist generation. Seattle: Seal Press, pp. xi‐xvi.Google Scholar
Foucault, Michel. 1972. The archeology of knowledge. Trans. A. M. Sheridan Smith. New York: Pantheon Books.Google Scholar
Fraiberg, Allison. 1992. Defining agency/refining resistance: Contemporary Quebec women writers and/in U.S. feminist theory. Women's Studies 21:57–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Francis, Becky. 2002. Relativism, realism, and feminism: An analysis of some theoretical tensions in research on gender identity. Journal of Gender Studies 11 (1): 39–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garrison, Ednie Kaeh. 2000. U.S. feminism‐grrrl style! Youth (sub)cultures and the technologies of the third wave. Feminist Studies 26 (1): 141–170.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldman, Jonathan L., ed. 2000. Webster's new world college dictionary. 4th ed. Foster City, Calif: IDG Books Worldwide Inc, pp. 74.Google Scholar
Golumbia, David. 1997. Rethinking philosophy in the third wave of feminism. Hypatia 12 (3): 100–115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gorr, Lisbeth. 1996. Frock power: The rise and rise of Elle McFeast. In DIY feminism, ed. Bail, Kathy. St. Leonards, NSW, Australia: Allen and Unwin, pp. 23–31.Google Scholar
Greene, Ronald W. 2004. Rhetoric and production: Rhetorical agency as communicative labor. Philosophy and Rhetoric 37 (3): 188–206.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hauser, Gerard A. 2004. Editor's introduction. Philosophy and Rhetoric 37 (3): 181–187.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hernández, Daisy, and Rehman, Bushra, eds. 2002. Colonize this!: Young women of color on today's feminism. Seattle: Seal Press, pp. xvii‐xxviii.Google Scholar
Herrup, Mocha Jean. 1995. Virtual identity. In To be real: Telling the truth and changing the face of feminism, ed. Walker, Rebecca. New York: Anchor Books, pp. 239–251.Google Scholar
Heywood, Leslie, and Drake, Jennifer. 1997. Introduction. In Third wave agenda: Being feminist, doing feminism, eds. Heywood, Leslie and Drake, Jennifer. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 1–20.Google Scholar
Howry, Allison L., and Wood, Julia T. 2001. Something old, something new, something borrowed: Themes in the voices of a new generation of feminists. Southern Communication Journal 66 (4): 323–336.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Labaton, Vivien, and Martin, Dawn Lundy. 2004. Introduction. In The fire this time: Young activists and the new feminism, eds. Labaton, Vivien and Martin, Dawn Lundy. New York: Anchor Books, pp. xxi‐xxxvii.Google Scholar
Lamm, Nomy. 1995. It's a big fat revolution. In Listen up: voices for the next feminist generation, ed. Findlen, Barbara. Seattle: Seal Press, pp. 85–94.Google Scholar
Levy, Ariel. 2005. Female chauvinist pigs: Women and the rise of raunch culture. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Lotz, Amanda D. 2003. Communicating third‐wave feminism and new social movements: Challenges for the next century of feminist endeavor. Women and Language 26 (1): 2–9.Google Scholar
MacKinnon, Catherine A. 1993. Only words. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Mao, Tse‐Tung. 1965. On contradiction [1952]. Peking, China: Foreign Languages Press.Google Scholar
Myhre, Jennifer Reid Maxcy. 1995. One bad hair day too many, or the hairstory of an androgynous young feminist. In Listen up: Voices from the next feminist generation, ed. Findlen, Barbara. Seattle: Seal Press, pp. 132–137.Google Scholar
Neuborne, Ellen. 1995. Imagine my surprise. In Listen up: Voices from the next feminist generation, ed. Findlen, Barbara. Seattle: Seal Press, pp. 29–35.Google Scholar
Orr, Catherine M. 1997. Charting the currents of the third wave. Hypatia 12 (3): 29–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ott, Brian L., and Aoki, Eric. 2001. Popular imagination and identity politics: Reading the future in Star Trek: The next generation. Western Journal of Communication 65 (4): 392–415.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Payne‐Milliken, Susan, and Renegar, Valerie R. 2006. Buffy never goes it alone: The rhetorical construction of feminism in Buffy the Vampire Slayer's final season. Iowa Journal of Communication 38 (1): 55–73.Google Scholar
Renegar, Valerie R. 2000. The be‐dazzling voyage to the background: The rhetorical theory of Mary Daly. Ph.D. diss. University of Kansas.Google Scholar
Renegar, Valerie R., and Sowards, Stacey K. 2003. Liberal irony, rhetoric, and feminist thought: A unifying third wave feminist philosophy. Philosophy and Rhetoric 36 (4): 330–352.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rorty, Richard. 1989. Contingency, irony, and solidarity. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rowe‐Finkbeiner, Kristin. 2003. Consent of a woman. Bust 23 (Spring): 69–71.Google Scholar
Salvador, Michael. 1994. The rhetorical subversion of cultural boundaries: The national consumer's league. Southern Communication Journal 59 (4): 318–332.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schneider, William. 2004. The label that sank Kerry. National Journal 36 (46): 3500.Google Scholar
Shugart, Helene. 2001. Isn't it ironic?: The intersection of third‐wave feminism and generation X. Women's Studies in Communication 24 (2): 131–168.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Siegel, Deborah L. 1997. The legacy of the personal: Generating theory in feminism's third wave. Hypatia 12 (3): 46–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sowards, Stacey K., and Renegar, Valerie R. 2004. The rhetorical functions of consciousness raising in third wave Feminism. Communication Studies 55 (4): 535–552.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sowards, Stacey K., and Renegar, Valerie R. 2006. Reconceptualizing rhetorical activism in contemporary feminist contexts. Howard Journal of Communications 17 (1): 57–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Triece, Mary E. 2000. Rhetoric and social change: Women's struggles for economic and political equality, 1900–1917. Women's Studies in Communication 23 (2): 238–260.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Turnbull, Nick. 2004. Rhetorical agency as a property of questioning. Philosophy and Rhetoric 37 (3): 207–222.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tzintzún, Cristina. 2002. Colonize this!. In Colonize this!: Young women of color on today's feminism, eds. Hernández, Daisy and Rehman, Bushra. Seattle: Seal Press, pp. 17–28.Google Scholar
Valdés, Alisa L. 1995. Ruminations of a feminist aerobics instructor. In Listen up: Voices from the next feminist generation, ed. Findlen, Barbara. Seattle: Seal Press, pp. 12–20.Google Scholar
Valenti, Jessica. 2007. Full frontal feminism: A young woman's guide to why feminism matters. Seattle: Seal Press.Google Scholar
Walker, Rebecca. 1992. Walker, Rebecca. Doing the third wave. Ms. 3 (2): 87.Google Scholar
Walker, Rebecca, ed. 1995. To be real: Telling the truth and changing the face of feminism. New York: Anchor Books, pp. xxix–xi.Google Scholar
Walker, Rebecca, and Webb, Veronica. 1995. How does a supermodel do feminism?: An interview with Veronica Webb. In To be real: Telling the truth and changing the face of feminism, ed. Walker, Rebecca. New York: Anchor Books, pp. 209–218.Google Scholar
Webster, Fiona. 2002. Do bodies matter? Sex, gender and politics. Australian Feminist Studies 17 (38): 191–205.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Žižek, Slavoj. 2000. The fragile absolute—or, why is the Christian legacy worth fighting for? New York: Verso.Google Scholar
Žižek, Slavoj. 2001. On belief. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar