Title
Single Narrative: Obscuring Difference in “The Guardian” Campaign Against Female Genital Cutting
Abstract
Female genital cutting (FGC) has become an indisputable atrocity in Western public discourse. Many argue that popular Western advocacy against the practice tends to denigrate FGC cultures and to reduce genitally cut women to voiceless victims. In 2014, the British newspaper The Guardian joined the fight against FGC with the launch of its End Female Genital Mutilation Global Media Campaign. Drawing on postcolonial criticism and political scientist Sanjay Seth’s theory of liberalism’s intolerance of difference, I argue that The Guardian campaign authorizes only one condemning narrative of FGC that obscures all others. Through this narrative model, the campaign usurps the agency of the same women it seeks to liberate.
Faculty Sponsor
Heather Hayes
Sponsor Department/Programs
Rhetoric Studies
Tracks
Rhetorical Studies: Interventions
Terms of Use
If you have questions about permitted uses of this content, please contact the ARMINDA administrator
Location
Reid G02
Presentation Type
Oral Presentation
This document is currently not available here.
Single Narrative: Obscuring Difference in “The Guardian” Campaign Against Female Genital Cutting
Reid G02
Female genital cutting (FGC) has become an indisputable atrocity in Western public discourse. Many argue that popular Western advocacy against the practice tends to denigrate FGC cultures and to reduce genitally cut women to voiceless victims. In 2014, the British newspaper The Guardian joined the fight against FGC with the launch of its End Female Genital Mutilation Global Media Campaign. Drawing on postcolonial criticism and political scientist Sanjay Seth’s theory of liberalism’s intolerance of difference, I argue that The Guardian campaign authorizes only one condemning narrative of FGC that obscures all others. Through this narrative model, the campaign usurps the agency of the same women it seeks to liberate.
Rights Statement
In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).