Keywords
rhetoric, feminism, maternal body, midwifery, social media
Abstract
When women find out they are pregnant, they encounter discourse about their bodies they may not have consciously considered before. Frequently, the information is based on ideologies that consider maternal bodies to be inherently problematic. The discourse in this information informs and shapes women’s choices about the role of medical oversight in their pregnancies and impacts the perceptions they have of themselves.
Midwives argue that mothers and their bodies are not inherently problematic but are powerful and capable of childbirth. They argue that medical oversight has been too aggressive in birth management, interrupting the natural process of birth and causing more risk. They are taking their arguments about maternal capability to social media to educate women and challenge sociocultural discourse that convinces the public that women’s bodies are inherently risky.
This thesis offers a rhetorical review of midwives’ advocacy on Instagram to understand the strategies they use to argue for the capable maternal body. It offers a brief historical review of the arguments about birth management, reviews the sociocultural information women encounter that articulates their bodies as problematic, and performs a visual and textual analysis of a series of childbirth photographs taken from a midwife’s account.
Midwives are powerful rhetors and advocates for women, and their use of social media has brought discourse around women’s capability to a more public space.
Completion Date
2024
Semester
Fall
Committee Chair
Melody A. Bowdon
Degree
Master of Arts (M.A.)
College
College of Arts and Humanities
Department
Writing and Rhetoric
Format
Identifier
DP0029027
Language
English
Release Date
12-15-2024
Access Status
Thesis
Campus Location
Orlando (Main) Campus
STARS Citation
Quintero-Jackson, Aminta C., "Capable Rhetoric: Embodied Rhetorical Listening and Midwives' Arguments for the Maternal Body on Instagram" (2024). Graduate Thesis and Dissertation post-2024. 61.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/etd2024/61
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