Rhet Crit Blog 3

Emily Shuler

3/23/15

Rhetorical Criticism

Blog 3

Word Count: 500

           

            Since I am analyzing the meme “Binders… Full of Women” I think it is appropriate that I utilize ideological criticism. This criticism is best used when “critics are interested in rhetoric primarily for what it suggests about beliefs and values.”  Since the meme I choose is politically laden as well as invokes a variety of responses from those who care about equal rights between men and women, this meme deals directly with people’s ideology, or “mental framework.” 

            In the text, they show how ideology is a set of beliefs.  They use the example of immigration.  There are varying ideologies when it comes to immigration; “too many people come to our country… immigrants only come here to live off welfare… the government must send back illegal immigrants.” Just as these statements reveal an ideology, or the “language, concepts, categories, imagery of thought, and the systems of representation that a group deploys to make sense of and define the world or some aspect of it,” so does the “Binders… Full of Women” meme.

            This meme provoked a variety of responses which reveal the differences in ideologies.  For women, this meme seemed to reinforce the ideology that women do not have an equal place in government.  Additionally, for women this meme reinforced the ideology that women do not have a place or say in government like males do.  Third, this meme showed the ideology that women think it’s time for government to change because there are not equal opportunities for women.    

            On the other hand, this meme revealed Romney’s ideology about women and their place in government. The phrase, “binders full of women” shows how Romney’s ideology places women in a different category then men.  Therefore, once it was transformed into the meme it shows that women have a lower status then men because “women do not belong in binders” according to SFgate.com.  The meme created from Romney’s famous words reveals both positive and negative ideologies about women’s place in government.

            If I didn’t choose ideological criticism to analyze my meme I would choose fantasy-theme criticism which is “designed to provide insights into the shared worldview of groups.”  “When people have a shared fantasy theme, they have charged that theme with meanings and emotions that can be set off by an agreed-upon cryptic symbolic cue, whether a code word, phrase, slogan, or nonverbal sign or gesture.”  The “Binders… Full of Women” meme created a shared fantasy theme for different groups of people.  Women could interpret the meme differently from men, just like women could interpret the meme differently from republicans.  Fantasy themes provide assumptions about ways of thinking about things.  That is why fantasy-theme criticism may be useful to interpret the different assumptions about the meaning of the “Binders… Full of Women” meme.

            Overall, ideological criticism seems to be the best choice for analyzing my meme “Binders… Full of Women.”  Since this meme deals so heavily with people’s personal beliefs and the way they view the world, ideological criticism is the best choice.            

Rhetorical Crit BLOG 2

RHET CRIT BLOG 2

Emily Shuler

Rhet. Crit.

2/23/15

Blog 2

Word Count: 508

            Although no previous rhetorical criticism analyses on Romney’s “binders… full of women” meme exist, other analyses of politically meaningful memes do. “The Pleasure and Play of Pepper Spray Cop Photoshop" meme is an exploration of how a politically laden meme is a “small unit of cultural information that spreads through a population” and how important it is to understand a meme’s “communicative significance” (Sci & Dare, 2014).  Additionally, Sci and Dare (2014) emphasize that memes have the ability to “to capture attention and shift public discourse” (Sci & Dare, 2014).  
              By examining Sci and Dare’s (2014) methods to critiquing the “Pepper Spray Cop” memes, I can examine how to utilize their method in relation to my own meme.  In Sci and Dare’s (2014) critique they started with a focus on “the surface of discourse.”  They claim the “Pepper Spray Cop” meme can be analyzed and critiqued in three memetic styles: political disputation, iconographic juxtaposition, and cultural absurdity (Sci & Dare, 2014).  Sci and Dare (2014) go on to explain how the meme represents the controversy the incident ignited (political disputation), how the meme linked Lt. John Pike to injustice (iconographic juxtaposition), and how ridiculous and inappropriate his actions were (cultural absurdity). They also point out how the “Pepper Spray Cop” meme can be unpacked as humorous, political satire that calls attention to unacceptable behavior and calls for change (Sci & Dare, 2014).  Therefore, Sci and Dare (2014) conclude that this meme is significant because of how it “shapes the mindsets, forms of behavior, and actions of social groups.”         

            After researching how Sci and Dare (2014) critically examined the “Pepper Spray Cop” meme, I learned a little bit about how to apply their research to my politically laden meme, “Binders… full of women.”  As the Lt. John Pike’s “Pepper Spray Cop” meme was unpacked as “political disputation, iconographic juxtaposition, and cultural absurdity,” I believe Romney’s “Binders… full of women” meme fits these categories (Sci & Dare (2014).  The “Binders… full of 
 women” meme represents how Romney’s actions caused political uproar for women (political disputation), how he linked himself to being out of touch with women (iconographic juxtaposition), and how Romney’s expression was named a “cultural absurdity” because women do not belong in binders.

            Sci and Dare (2014) concluded that the patterns in the “Pepper Spray Cop Photoshop” memes positioned Lt. John Pike’s poor behavior to be linked with his name for the long haul.  Therefore, from Sci and Dare’s (2014) critical perspective, I conclude that the “binders… full of women” meme positioned Romney’s poor choice in words to be linked to his name for a long time.  By seeing how
 Sci and Dare (2014) unpacked the cultural meaning of the “Pepper Spray Cop Meme,” I was able to see how the “Binders… full of women” meme can be unpacked in several ways.  At the start of this course, I would have never thought that a meme could be examined by a scholarly, critical analysis.  Yet, overall, I now understand the practicality and the reasons behind critically analyzing a meme. 

Reference

Sci, S. A., & Dare, A. M. (2014). The Pleasure and Play of Pepper Spray Cop Photoshop Memes. Northwest Journal Of Communication, 42(1), 7-34. 

RHET CRIT BLOG 1

Emily Shuler                                                                                                                         

2/9/15

Com 327

Blog 1
Word Count: 603
 

I selected a meme of Mitt Romney with the caption, “Binders… Full of Women.”  In this meme Romney is shown speaking at the second presidential debate against Obama in 2012 on CNN.  The viral and somewhat offensive phrase, “binders full of women” spread across the web instantly and manifested into a popular meme.  Not only has this meme been launched throughout the internet, it has birthed “a hilarious tumblr parody Twitter account @Romneys_Binder with more than 13,000 followers, a Facebook fan page dubbed “Binders Full of Women,” which had amassed nearly 200,000 likes at time of writing, and the #bindersfullofwomen became a trending topic on Twitter (Stern, 2012).  Additionally, “binders full of women became the “third-fastest rising search on Google during the televised debate” (Stern, 2012). Most importantly, the implications of this meme are deeper implications then just popularity on the internet. 

With women making up 50.8 percent of the population, at this time, Romney had been consistently earning lower percentages of women’s votes compared to Obama (Stern, 2012).         The meme was produced in part because of the answer that Romney gave in response to Katherine Fenton’s question.  She asked, “In what new ways do you intend to rectify the inequalities in the workplace, specifically regarding females making only 72 percent of what their male counterparts earn?” (Stern, 2012).  Romney claimed he “learned a great deal” about the gaps in gender equality in the workplace” (Stern, 2012). Romney stated: 

“I went to my staff, and I said, ‘How come all the people for these jobs are—are all men…’And I said: ‘Well, gosh, can't we—can't we find some—some women that are also qualified?’ And—and so we—we took a concerted effort to go out and find women who had backgrounds that could be qualified to become members of our cabinet. I went to a number of women's groups and said: ‘Can you help us find folks,’ and they brought us whole binders full of women.” (Stern, 2012)

After Romney’s answer, “binders full of women” became a popular and well-known statement; it also became impactful as a meme. Although the meme is entertaining, there is larger symbolism at play.  In some ways the meme stands for inequalities women experience; from income inequality, to the glass ceiling, as well as lack of representation in government.  Additionally, this meme represents how out of touch with women Romney and the Republican party are.  Yet, the symbolic weight this image carries resonates differently with different audiences.  In response to this meme, Kate Segal, democratic floor leader in the Michigan House of Representatives stated, “To solve the problem of pay inequality we don't need more 'binders full of women,' we need more ballots full of women #BallotsNotBinders" (CNN Political Unit).  This symbolizes that the hype isn’t just about Romney’s frivolous comment, it’s about women’s current stance and their lack of representation in the public sphere.  On the other hand, Republican Melinda Henneberger “came to Mitt Romney’s defense in ‘She the People,’ saying the candidate did hire a number of women during his first two years as governor “(Washington Post, 2012).  Yet, according to the Washington Post, by the end of Romney’s term the percentage on women in his cabinet dropped.  This meme is most effective to women because it involves their role in society and their role as a person of power.  Additionally, this meme is most effective to women because it highlights how women are traditionally left out of decision making in the public sphere; this meme is a perfect example of this.  The meme and saying “binders full of women” will not be forgotten.       

            

Bibliography

Romney's 'Binder full of women' comment spills onto campaign trail. (2012, January 1).                 Retrieved February 10, 2015, from http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/                             decision2012/binder-full-of-women-comment-spills-onto-campaign-trail

Stern, M. (2012, October 17). Mitt Romney’s ‘Binders Full of Women’ Comment Sets Internet           Ablaze. Retrieved February 9, 2015.