Ada Hubrig, 

Department of English, Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, Texas, US

https://doi.org/10.1080/14735784.2024.2366341

Pages 73-90

Published online 19 September 2024

​​

Abstract

This article traces rhetorical deployments of ‘the child’ to establish a working theory of peda-parrhesiastic rhetoric. Peda-parrhesiastic rhetoric falsely frames its speaker as a champion for children, militarising public opinion against marginalised people and justifying harm to them. This article first defines peda-parrhesiastic rhetoric and establishes four features of this rhetorical strategy (1. Framing the speaker as championing children; 2. Stoking outrage to distract from inaccurate claims; 3. Preserving white supremacist, cisheteropatriarchal, and ableist normativities through this rhetoric; and 4. Vilifying marginalised people in service of those normativities), and demonstrates how this strategy is taken up in anti-trans rhetorics surrounding public education. Ultimately, this article argues for the necessity of cross-identity coalitional resistance to peda-parrhesiastic rhetorics.

​

Back to Militarisation and Pleasure

​​​​