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Of the hundreds of news stories about pregnant
women following September 11th, Terrell chose to focus on two particular
individuals: Marianne Pearl and Lisa Beemer. Her thesis about the
role of the pregnant wife of murdered Wall Street journalist Daniel Pearl
and the pregnant wife of passenger Todd Beemer who helped overpower the
terrorist crew of the plane that went down in Pennsylvania emphasized connections
between gender and rhetoric.
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I would argue that
our election of two pregnant rhetoricians goes to the heart of how America
has chosen to deal with the attacks. Certainly, neither of these
women are the most articulate or educated female rhetoricians of our age,
but both have a very powerful pathos that demands the sympathy of their
audience. I believe that these women symbolize the position of America;
they capture the vulnerability, apprehension, and innocence by proxy that
America itself is struggling with. |
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The connection between gender ideology and appeals to pathos
was explored by the class, but this student also connected gender issues
to the oppositional logic of the dominant rhetorical
paradigm of the "clash of civilizations."
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