Changing Perceptions, Changing Conditions: The Material Rhetoric of the Red Hat Society

Abstract

The Red Hat Society, an international social club for women over age fifty, offers its members a social outlet during aging. Departing from a common focus on members' emotional health, a rhetorical lens on the red and purple hats and costumes the women wear offers a new consideration of the groups' value. Particularly, the creation and donning of “regalia” by members of a Rhode Island chapter constitute instances of material rhetoric, or texts that challenge public perceptions of aging women and provide rhetorical opportunities that aging women take to change the conditions of their own and other women's lives.

Notes

¹I thank RR peer reviewers Steven Mailloux and Todd McDorman for their generous feedback.

²This article constitutes a portion of an interview study of seven women recruited based on their membership in a local-to-me chapter of the Red Hat Society. The study, in part funded by a Graduate Fellowship from University of Rhode Island in 2009–10, conforms to IRB standards there, including obtaining the participants' informed consent.

³Participants in this study chose their own pseudonyms.