Feminism=Multidimensional Examinations

I'm really getting stuck on the term feminism. Mainly, the connotations and implications that are involved with the term. I understand that for feminists, especially women,  there is a special pride in the word, something that shows their emerging rhetoric and philosophy. But, feminism for me is not limited to females or even a more feminine way of looking at the world. The past descriptions of feminist thinking such as a strong emphasis on harmonization, activist movements, and intuitive thinking are all contained in this rhetoric, but they are just a part. This is not to take anything away from women, because they did spearhead this emerging rhetoric, but I think that the special function of feminism is the connectivity that it fosters, and when the term feminism is invoked, it doesn't create a connectivity for the male reader, but a distancing, something that seems to imply that it is outside the realm of masculine thought.

I almost feel like there is a tad bit of resentment for the past two thousand years of western rhetoric. I say that with more than a little sarcasm but if this new emerging rhetoric is called feminism, then what came before could be called masculine. And yes, male rhetors did distance the female, basically saying that feminine ideals were lesser, but, if feminism is called feminism, which I do think is the new rhetoric for the 21st century and beyond, then it is hindering its own connectivity by its exclusionary word and in a sense reversing the chain of command. If feminism does become mainstream rhetoric what will happen will be nothing short of the disdain for previous "masculine, exclusionary rhetoric" and the past two thousand years of rhetoric will go up in smoke and be devalued.

These new ways of examining text and our world that Royster and Kirsch propose are different from what has been previously valued. The two points we looked at today, critical imagination and strategic contemplation, are seemingly far from previous Western rhetoric, but actually they are tied closely to previous rhetoricians ideas. Critical imagination could be seen as a tool for kairotic inspection, and strategic contemplation as a tool for invention. But, these two concepts create different relationships than ones we have previously seen and frame the argument in a different way, making them valuable. And that is exactly what feminism for me is all about. It is still rhetoric and deals with persuasion in ways that are tied to previous rhetoric but the frame of reference that we use to look at it is shifting, maybe using feminine qualities, but more importantly reshaping previous rhetoric and showing how the past two thousand years of rhetoric can still be applicable as our subjectivity and exclusionary models of society begin to break away and a new interdependent and collaborative oriented rhetoric begins to emerge.