Kristan Poirot | Texas A&M University (original) (raw)

Books by Kristan Poirot

By the mid-1990s feminist theorists and critics began to challenge conventional thinking about se... more By the mid-1990s feminist theorists and critics began to challenge conventional thinking about sex difference and its relationship to gender and sexuality. Scholars such as Anne Fausto-Sterling and Judith Butler troubled the sex-gender/nature-nurture divide. Some have asserted that these questions about sex are much too abstract to contribute to a valuable understanding of the material politics faced by feminist movements. In A Question of Sex , Kristan Poirot challenges the notion that feminism is a movement that champions the fact of sex, while allowing more diverse readings of gender. She argues that such views risk marshaling a naïve understanding of feminist movement practices across generations.

Poirot focuses on five case studies: the circulation of Sojourner Truth’s “Ain’t I a Woman?” in early and contemporary feminist contexts; the visual rhetorics of the feminist self-help health movement; the public discourse of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and early nineteenth century ideas about suffrage, sex, and race; the conflicts over lesbian sexuality in the 1960s and 1970s; and the discourse that surrounds twenty-first century SlutWalks. In the process, Poirot rethinks the terms through which we understand U.S. feminist movements to explore the ways feminism has questioned sexed distinctions and practices over time. She emphasizes the importance of reading feminist engagements with sex as rhetorical endeavors—practices, in other words, that are shaped by the instrumental demands of movements, the exigent situations that call for feminists to respond, and the enduring philosophical traditions that circulate in U.S. political contexts

Papers by Kristan Poirot

Rhetoric Society Quarterly, 2015

ABSTRACT Historical and heritage tourism is a booming industry across the United States, and sout... more ABSTRACT Historical and heritage tourism is a booming industry across the United States, and southern states in particular offer tourists the chance to walk the streets where some of the United States’ most dramatic racial conflicts unfolded. In these contexts, publics are invited to remember slavery in strategic ways. This essay enriches rhetorical studies’ understanding of the relationship between place and public memory by offering a robust consideration of tourism as a constitutive component of memory environments. We do so through a closer look at the memories of urban slavery and rebellion that circulate in Charleston, South Carolina’s historical tourism industry.

Rhetoric and Public Affairs

When publics remember southern black freedom movements they often forget women’s pivotal roles as... more When publics remember southern black freedom movements they often forget women’s pivotal roles as activists and leaders. In fact, the South’s civil rights public memorial landscape—a conglomeration of museums and memorials that help comprise the region’s profitable black heritage tourism industry—is one that promotes a “Great Man” perspective. Although scholars recognize the importance of recovery projects that aim to recenter women’s roles in black freedom struggles, when it comes to these memory practices, the “woman problem” of civil rights memory is more acknowledged than understood. This essay argues that memories of civil rights movements are mapped spatially and rhetorically to depict correlations among Jim Crow contexts and acts of black resistance. The relationship between these spatial and rhetorical configurations are termed as the rhetorical geography of memory. Through an account of the rhetorical geography of memory of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, this essay posits that place, violence, and masculinity to animate a relationship between exigency and response, producing a gendered landscape of memory that limits at the outset the conditions and possibilities for women’s emergence.

Rhetoric Society Quarterly, 2015

Historical and heritage tourism is a booming industry across the United States, and southern stat... more Historical and heritage tourism is a booming industry across the United States, and southern states in particular offer tourists the chance to walk the streets where some of the United States’ most
dramatic racial conflicts unfolded. In these contexts, publics are invited to remember slavery in
strategic ways. This essay enriches rhetorical studies’ understanding of the relationship between
place and public memory by offering a robust consideration of tourism as a constitutive component
of memory environments. We do so through a closer look at the memories of urban slavery and rebellion that circulate in Charleston, South Carolina’s historical tourism industry.

Quarterly Journal of Speech, 2010

Elizabeth Cady Stanton has been celebrated for her astute rhetorical contributions to woman's rig... more Elizabeth Cady Stanton has been celebrated for her astute rhetorical contributions to woman's rights advocacy and highly criticized for her racist and elitist sentiments about citizenship and the franchise. Although there appears to be a discontinuity between Cady Stanton's commitment to (sexual) equality and her racism/elitism, this tension is reconciled through a consideration of the ways her early rhetoric embodies, revitalizes, and resists a liberal enlightenment idiom of difference. Responding to immediate exigencies of nineteenth-century politics and an enduring tension between universality and biological difference in liberal political theory, Cady Stanton articulates a view of sexual and racial difference that is extracorporeal.

Women's Studies in Communication, 2009

The battle over lesbian sexual ity and identity in femi nism 's seco nd wave was one of its most ... more The battle over lesbian sexual ity and identity in femi nism 's seco nd wave was one of its most cripp ling struggles. Thi s essay discusses this battle by focusing on the rhetoric s of radicaillesbian feminism between 1970 and 1975, contextualizing them within movement strugg les over public identity , revolutionary vision , and medi a politic s. Callin g atten tion to the way s rad ical!lesbia n fem inists' woman-identified rhetor ic engaged in strategies of con tainme nt, this essay desc ribes a do mestication of wo man and radical! lesbian femi nism itself.

Women's Studies in Communication, 2004

Mass media's relationship with feminism has long been of interest to feminist rhetorical scholars... more Mass media's relationship with feminism has long been of interest to feminist rhetorical scholars. In this essay, i examine the media's relationship with the second wave of feminism in terms of the outing of Kate Millett and the popular reception of her book, Sexual Politics. Rather than separating the movement's reception of Millett and the popular media reception, I explore how both intersected and culminated in disciplinary processes of authority and authorization.

Journal of Health Communication, 2004

Some medical providers have advocated applied genomics, including the use of genetically linked r... more Some medical providers have advocated applied genomics, including the use of genetically linked racial phenotypes in medical practice, raising fear that race-based medication will become justified. As with other emerging medical genetic technologies, pharmaceutical companies may advertise these treatments. Researchers fear that consumers will uncritically accept pharmaceutical messages and demand the product. In this exploratory study, we examined public reactions to advertisements for applied genomic medications. A focus group methodology was employed. Participants tended to resist the message and generated warrants for doing so, indicating critical reception of the messages. Message accepters also provided warrants. Warrants for resistance and acceptance differ between self-identified racial groups. Consumers, health care providers, and pharmaceutical corporations will benefit from a better understanding of direct-to-consumer advertisements as medical communication. Our study concludes that both advocates and opponents of direct-to-consumer advertisements should recognize that potential consumers of pharmacogenomics act as critical consumers of health advertising discourse.

By the mid-1990s feminist theorists and critics began to challenge conventional thinking about se... more By the mid-1990s feminist theorists and critics began to challenge conventional thinking about sex difference and its relationship to gender and sexuality. Scholars such as Anne Fausto-Sterling and Judith Butler troubled the sex-gender/nature-nurture divide. Some have asserted that these questions about sex are much too abstract to contribute to a valuable understanding of the material politics faced by feminist movements. In A Question of Sex , Kristan Poirot challenges the notion that feminism is a movement that champions the fact of sex, while allowing more diverse readings of gender. She argues that such views risk marshaling a naïve understanding of feminist movement practices across generations.

Poirot focuses on five case studies: the circulation of Sojourner Truth’s “Ain’t I a Woman?” in early and contemporary feminist contexts; the visual rhetorics of the feminist self-help health movement; the public discourse of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and early nineteenth century ideas about suffrage, sex, and race; the conflicts over lesbian sexuality in the 1960s and 1970s; and the discourse that surrounds twenty-first century SlutWalks. In the process, Poirot rethinks the terms through which we understand U.S. feminist movements to explore the ways feminism has questioned sexed distinctions and practices over time. She emphasizes the importance of reading feminist engagements with sex as rhetorical endeavors—practices, in other words, that are shaped by the instrumental demands of movements, the exigent situations that call for feminists to respond, and the enduring philosophical traditions that circulate in U.S. political contexts

Rhetoric Society Quarterly, 2015

ABSTRACT Historical and heritage tourism is a booming industry across the United States, and sout... more ABSTRACT Historical and heritage tourism is a booming industry across the United States, and southern states in particular offer tourists the chance to walk the streets where some of the United States’ most dramatic racial conflicts unfolded. In these contexts, publics are invited to remember slavery in strategic ways. This essay enriches rhetorical studies’ understanding of the relationship between place and public memory by offering a robust consideration of tourism as a constitutive component of memory environments. We do so through a closer look at the memories of urban slavery and rebellion that circulate in Charleston, South Carolina’s historical tourism industry.

Rhetoric and Public Affairs

When publics remember southern black freedom movements they often forget women’s pivotal roles as... more When publics remember southern black freedom movements they often forget women’s pivotal roles as activists and leaders. In fact, the South’s civil rights public memorial landscape—a conglomeration of museums and memorials that help comprise the region’s profitable black heritage tourism industry—is one that promotes a “Great Man” perspective. Although scholars recognize the importance of recovery projects that aim to recenter women’s roles in black freedom struggles, when it comes to these memory practices, the “woman problem” of civil rights memory is more acknowledged than understood. This essay argues that memories of civil rights movements are mapped spatially and rhetorically to depict correlations among Jim Crow contexts and acts of black resistance. The relationship between these spatial and rhetorical configurations are termed as the rhetorical geography of memory. Through an account of the rhetorical geography of memory of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, this essay posits that place, violence, and masculinity to animate a relationship between exigency and response, producing a gendered landscape of memory that limits at the outset the conditions and possibilities for women’s emergence.

Rhetoric Society Quarterly, 2015

Historical and heritage tourism is a booming industry across the United States, and southern stat... more Historical and heritage tourism is a booming industry across the United States, and southern states in particular offer tourists the chance to walk the streets where some of the United States’ most
dramatic racial conflicts unfolded. In these contexts, publics are invited to remember slavery in
strategic ways. This essay enriches rhetorical studies’ understanding of the relationship between
place and public memory by offering a robust consideration of tourism as a constitutive component
of memory environments. We do so through a closer look at the memories of urban slavery and rebellion that circulate in Charleston, South Carolina’s historical tourism industry.

Quarterly Journal of Speech, 2010

Elizabeth Cady Stanton has been celebrated for her astute rhetorical contributions to woman's rig... more Elizabeth Cady Stanton has been celebrated for her astute rhetorical contributions to woman's rights advocacy and highly criticized for her racist and elitist sentiments about citizenship and the franchise. Although there appears to be a discontinuity between Cady Stanton's commitment to (sexual) equality and her racism/elitism, this tension is reconciled through a consideration of the ways her early rhetoric embodies, revitalizes, and resists a liberal enlightenment idiom of difference. Responding to immediate exigencies of nineteenth-century politics and an enduring tension between universality and biological difference in liberal political theory, Cady Stanton articulates a view of sexual and racial difference that is extracorporeal.

Women's Studies in Communication, 2009

The battle over lesbian sexual ity and identity in femi nism 's seco nd wave was one of its most ... more The battle over lesbian sexual ity and identity in femi nism 's seco nd wave was one of its most cripp ling struggles. Thi s essay discusses this battle by focusing on the rhetoric s of radicaillesbian feminism between 1970 and 1975, contextualizing them within movement strugg les over public identity , revolutionary vision , and medi a politic s. Callin g atten tion to the way s rad ical!lesbia n fem inists' woman-identified rhetor ic engaged in strategies of con tainme nt, this essay desc ribes a do mestication of wo man and radical! lesbian femi nism itself.

Women's Studies in Communication, 2004

Mass media's relationship with feminism has long been of interest to feminist rhetorical scholars... more Mass media's relationship with feminism has long been of interest to feminist rhetorical scholars. In this essay, i examine the media's relationship with the second wave of feminism in terms of the outing of Kate Millett and the popular reception of her book, Sexual Politics. Rather than separating the movement's reception of Millett and the popular media reception, I explore how both intersected and culminated in disciplinary processes of authority and authorization.

Journal of Health Communication, 2004

Some medical providers have advocated applied genomics, including the use of genetically linked r... more Some medical providers have advocated applied genomics, including the use of genetically linked racial phenotypes in medical practice, raising fear that race-based medication will become justified. As with other emerging medical genetic technologies, pharmaceutical companies may advertise these treatments. Researchers fear that consumers will uncritically accept pharmaceutical messages and demand the product. In this exploratory study, we examined public reactions to advertisements for applied genomic medications. A focus group methodology was employed. Participants tended to resist the message and generated warrants for doing so, indicating critical reception of the messages. Message accepters also provided warrants. Warrants for resistance and acceptance differ between self-identified racial groups. Consumers, health care providers, and pharmaceutical corporations will benefit from a better understanding of direct-to-consumer advertisements as medical communication. Our study concludes that both advocates and opponents of direct-to-consumer advertisements should recognize that potential consumers of pharmacogenomics act as critical consumers of health advertising discourse.