Consciousness-Raising as Collective Rhetoric: The Articulation of Experience in the Redstockings' Abortion Speak-Out of 1969

Abstract

This essay offers a theory of collective rhetoric derived from a case study of a central rhetorical event of the second wave of feminism, the Redstockings’ 1969 abortion speak-out. A central rhetorical function of consciousness-raising was the collective development of experiential knowledge, and I propose that collective rhetorics are characterized by the collaborative articulation of individual experiences through such rhetorical processes as narrative, irony and humor, and symbolic reversal. I conclude by discussing the importance of collective rhetorical processes in feminist contexts and the potential utility of a theory of collective rhetoric in understanding a range of contemporary discursive forms.

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