Abstract

In 1838, Mary Gove (Nichols) began lecturing on anatomy and physiology, a rhetorical act that was both new and risky because public discussion of the human body and disease was believed inappropriate for women. In order to protect her ethos, Gove used her ostensibly informative lectures to promote her reform agenda, by implying that her audience already shared her beliefs in women's right to physiological knowledge and their obligation to use that knowledge to reform society. Rather than relying only on the conventional advice to construct one's ethos based on the audience's existing values, Gove also crafted her audience's ethos, describing her listeners in ways that emphasized values conducive to her reform agenda. Her use of this strategy suggests that an audience's acceptance of nontraditional speakers is not simply a matter of “letting” them speak; it also means, to some degree, acknowledging the alternative values they represent.

Journal
Rhetoric Society Quarterly
Published
2009-07-01
DOI
10.1080/02773940902766730
Open Access
Closed
Topics

Citation Context

Cites in this index (6)

  1. College English
  2. Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  3. Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  4. Rhetoric Review
  5. Rhetoric Review
Show all 6 →
  1. Rhetoric Review
Also cites 10 works outside this index ↓
  1. 10.5840/jcr19992215
    Journal of Communication and Religion  
  2. 10.1080/00335638809383844
  3. 10.1080/10417949109372841
  4. 10.2307/359906
    New England Quarterly  
  5. Traces of a Stream: Literacy and Social Change among African American Women
  6. Shameless: The Visionary Life of Mary Gove Nichols
  7. 10.1353/rap.2001.0013
  8. 10.1086/494860
  9. 10.1080/00335639509384108
  10. 10.1080/00335630209384368
CrossRef global citation count: 4 View in citation network →