Femininity and feminism in Murphy Brown

Abstract

While past examples of feminist rhetorical criticism have emphasized women as communicators, analysis of communication about women can illustrate the existence of recurring rhetorical strategies that devalue women. As an example, analysis of the situation comedy Murphy Brown illustrates how the program's female title character enacts a patriarchal interpretation of the excesses of liberal feminist ideology. Murphy Brown functions to reinforce the dichotomy between femininity and feminism that is an inherent problem of liberal feminism, demonstrating the need for greater critical attention to the range of feminist theories available for evaluation of rhetorical artifacts.