The Prettier Doll

by Tracy, Karen; McDaniel, James P.; Gronbeck, Bruce E.

• ISBN13: 9780817315757
• ISBN10: 0817315756
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-09-23
• Publisher: Univ of Alabama Pr

Summary

Essays in theThe Prettier Dollfocus on the same local controversy: in 2001,a third-grade girl in Colorado submitted an experiment to the school science fair. She asked 30 adults and 30 fifth-graders which of two Barbie dolls was prettier. One doll was black, the other white, and each wore a different colored dress. All of the adults picked the Barbie in the purple dress, while nearly all of the fifth graders picked the white Barbie. When the studentrs"s experiment was banned an uproar resulted that spread to the national media. School board meetings and other public exchanges highlighted the potent intersection of local and national social concerns: education, censorship, science, racism, and tensions in foundation values such as liberty, democracy, and free speech. For the authors of these essays, the exchanges that arose from "Barbiegate" illustrate vividly the role of rhetoric at the grassroots level, fundamental to civic judgment in a democratic state and at the core of "ordinary democracy." Contributors: Mark A. Aakkhus Bruce E. Gronbeck Robert Hariman Kathleen Haspel Alexa Hepburn Darrin Hicks James P. McDaniel Jonathan Potter Herbert W. Simons Karen Tracy

Author Biography

Karen Tracy is Professor of Communications at the University of Colorado–Boulder and author of Colloquium: Dilemmas of Academic Discourse. 

James P. McDaniel coedited Judgment Calls: Rhetoric, Politics, and Indeterminacy. 

Bruce E. Gronbeck is A. Craig Baird Distinguished Professor of Public Address at the University of Iowa. He is author of The Articulate Person: A Guide to Everyday Public Speaking and Writing Television Criticism.

Table of Contents

Introduction: A Moment of Ordinary Democracy	p. 3
Through the Looking Glass and Back: Democratic Theory, Rhetoric, and Barbiegate	p. 22
Race, Liberalism, and Barbiegate Discourse: A Dilemma-Centered Rhetorical Analysis	p. 45
Political Performances in Public Proceedings: The Social Dramas of Barbiegate	p. 70
Darkness on the Edge of Town: On the Interface between Communicational and Racial Ideologies	p. 103
Marking and Shifting Lines in the Sand: Discursive Moves of Ordinary Democracy	p. 142
Chairing Democracy: Psychology, Time, and Negotiating the Institution	p. 176
Understanding Ordinary Democracy: The Intersection of Discourse and Rhetorical Analysis	p. 205
Amateur Hour: Knowing What to Love in Ordinary Democracy	p. 218
Transcripts of BVSD Speeches	p. 251
Newspaper and School District Documents	p. 289
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