Campbell (1973), "The Rhetoric of Women’s Liberation: An Oxymoron"

1. Feminist rhetoric uses rhetoric to challenge rhetoric.

We think of rhetors as having self-reliance, self-confidence, and independence, which Campbell (1973) argues is a violation of the female role. Therefore, feminist rhetoric is inherently unique because it is an attack on the fundamental assumptions of its cultural context. Campbell (1973) argues that feminist rhetoric contains moral conflict, since it uses imagined shared circumstances to point out that these circumstances are not shared at all.

2. Feminist rhetoric refuses audience passivity.

Style of feminist rhetoric must be anti-rhetorical, since characteristics of rhetors encourage submissiveness in the audience.

3. Feminist rhetoric builds public community from private experiences.

Feminist rhetoric must include discussion of the private, since women's experience has been restricted from the public sphere. Since structural solutions are a goal, discussions of the private must move to unite women's experience.