Replacing Notorious: Barret, Ginsburg, and Postfeminist Positioning

Rhetoric & Public Affairs Mar 2023

Replacing Notorious: Barret, Ginsburg, and Postfeminist Positioning

Calvin R. Coker

Abstract

Abstract This essay offers a rhetorical reading of Amy Coney Barrett's confirmation hearings to make sense of how widespread outrage over replacing the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg with a conservative idealogue was resolved through the invocation of postfeminist motherhood. I argue that GOP Senators and Barrett herself positioned her nomination as the achievement of feminist goals, justified through rhetorics of choice and the idealization of (white) motherhood. These strategies cement Barrett as the logical and defensible successor to both Ginsburg's seat and her legacy of feminist work. I conclude with the implications of this circulation of postfeminist motherhood, with focus on political movements for equality and treatment of women.

Journal: Rhetoric & Public Affairs
Published: 2023-03-01
DOI: 10.14321/rhetpublaffa.26.1.0101
Open Access: Closed
Topics: writing across the curriculum multilingual writers

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