Outfitting the Conservative Civil Rights Movement: Rehearsed White Victimhood and the MAGA Hat

Autor:	Meredith Neville-Shepard, Ryan Neville-Shepard
Rok vydání:	2022
Předmět:	Linguistics and Language Sociology and Political Science Communication Language and Linguistics
Zdroj:	Rhetoric and Public Affairs. 25:35-63
ISSN:	1534-5238 1094-8392
DOI:	10.14321/rhetpublaffa.25.4.0035
Popis:	This essay contends that the red MAGA hat in the modern conservative movement plays off Donald Trump's populist construction of his supporters as victims by creating opportunities for the performance of what we call “rehearsed victimhood.” As an enactment of vulnerability that allows individuals in historically powerful positions to claim marginalized status by manifesting material evidence of their subjugation, we argue that rehearsed victimhood relies on weaponized polysemy to bait critics, the cooptation of civil rights rhetoric, and acts of humiliation and violent self-sacrifice. We illustrate the performance of rehearsed victimhood through a close reading of media coverage of numerous incidents where Trump supporters claimed discrimination after being attacked, fired, or ridiculed for wearing a MAGA hat.
Databáze:	OpenAIRE
Externí odkaz:	https://explore.openaire.eu/search/publication?articleId=doi_________::78a2cf69bcba9f51624aca23acf33224 https://doi.org/10.14321/rhetpublaffa.25.4.0035 Zobrazit plný text záznamu