Hegemonic Negotiation in Contemporary Marriage Politics 1
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HEGEMONIC NEGOTIATION IN CONTEMPORARY MARRIAGE POLITICS 1 Distribution Agreement In presenting this thesis or dissertation as a partial fulfillment of the requirements for an advanced degree from Emory University, I hereby grant to Emory University and its agents the non- exclusive license to archive, make accessible, and display my thesis or dissertation in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known, including display on the world wide web. I understand that I may select some access restrictions as part of the online submission of this thesis or dissertation. I retain all ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis or dissertation. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis or dissertation. Signature: ________________________________________ __________________ Alysia M.B. Davis Date HEGEMONIC NEGOTIATION IN CONTEMPORARY MARRIAGE POLITICS 2 To Honor and Obey: Hegemonic Negotiation in Contemporary Marriage Politics By Alysia M.B. Davis Doctor of Philosophy Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality __________________________________________ Beth Reingold, Ph.D. Advisor __________________________________________ Martha Albertson Fineman, J.D. Committee Member __________________________________________ Holloway Sparks, Ph.D. Committee Member __________________________________________ Regina Werum, Ph.D. Committee Member Accepted: __________________________________________ Lisa A. Tedesco, Ph.D. Dean of the James T. Laney School of Graduate Studies ________________ Date HEGEMONIC NEGOTIATION IN CONTEMPORARY MARRIAGE POLITICS 3 To Honor and Obey: Hegemonic Negotiation in Contemporary Marriage Politics By Alysia M.B. Davis M.S., University of Rochester, 2000 Advisor: Beth Reingold Ph.D., University of California at Berkeley An abstract of A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the James T. Laney School of Graduate Studies of Emory University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies 2013 HEGEMONIC NEGOTIATION IN CONTEMPORARY MARRIAGE POLITICS 4 Abstract To Honor and Obey: Hegemonic Negotiation in Contemporary Marriage Politics By Alysia M.B. Davis This longitudinal and empirical study of the field of marriage politics prioritizes discourse in understanding the influence of hegemony on movement framing. I do so by evaluating how a specific construct – the hegemonic marriage ethic – contours framing decisions of three social movements: the traditional marriage movement (TMM), the Marriage Movement (MM), and the marriage equality movement (MEM). My research combines feminist discourse analysis and corpus linguistics methods to evaluate four corpora – The Washington Post headlines (1985-2007), interviews with leaders of 19 social movement organizations (SMOs), extensive movement organization documents, and a reference corpus constructed from the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) spanning the years 1990-2012 (Davies 2008-). Three main theoretical tenets guide my research: 1) feminist and queer critiques of marriage identify hetero-patriarchal foundations of the hegemonic marriage ethic; 2) the theory of cultural hegemony highlights the importance of a discursive focus; and 3) social movement framing theory provides scope conditions for assessing how shifts or changes in hegemonic constructions become relevant for framing decision-making. My research theorizes negotiation as a tool for movements to discursively engage hegemony. The concept of negotiation counters often over-simplified depictions of social movements’ mindless hegemonic acceptance or rejection. In this empirical marriage case, the dialogic nature of framing necessitates interdiscursive framing strategies for dealing with the problem or promise of hegemony. I also argue that better understanding of how movements negotiate the hegemonic marriage ethic reveals significant implications for issues of sexual citizenship. HEGEMONIC NEGOTIATION IN CONTEMPORARY MARRIAGE POLITICS 5 To Honor and Obey: Hegemonic Negotiation in Contemporary Marriage Politics By Alysia M.B. Davis M.S., University of Rochester, 2000 Advisor: Beth Reingold Ph.D., University of California at Berkeley A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the James T. Laney School of Graduate Studies of Emory University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies 2013 HEGEMONIC NEGOTIATION IN CONTEMPORARY MARRIAGE POLITICS 6 Acknowledgments I worked on this dissertation for the greater part of my married life. While the result of my labor serves as a critique of the public manifestations of marriage, I must still come to the conclusion that committed love-based partnerships truly do provide each of us lucky enough to fall into such an arrangement with a high degree of support, sustenance, and stability. My husband, Michael Davis, deserves all the praise that I can bestow for the role he played in making sure I got this dissertation done. If marriage were to go away tomorrow, I still would plan to walk through the rest of my life with him. The last year of my writing and research has been challenging, first, for the obvious reasons associated with the home stretch of a dissertation. But also, second, because in my case I fulfilled the old adage, “First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes a baby in a baby carriage.” I am so blessed to have my precocious and brilliant daughter, Emmeline Lucy, in my life. Because writing meant reluctant time away from her, she deserves acknowledgement for being my number one motivator. I also have great thanks for my family – Jerry and Linda Cockrell, Paula Davis, Evelyn Button, and Fannie Hutton – for not only cheering me on from the sidelines, but also for awesomely interacting with Emme on a regular basis so that I could have focused time to think. I am truly blessed to have such an amazing support network. I would also like to thank the members of the Emory University community who helped me along this journey, including my advisor, Beth Reingold, and my committee members – Holloway Sparks, Martha Fineman, and Regina Werum. Department cohort members Alyssa Levy and Erin Tunney were always particularly quick to commiserate, and I will always cherish their friendships. Finally, my Emory University experience will always be positively painted with the spirit of the lovely Berky Abreu, whose guidance was gracious and very much appreciated. HEGEMONIC NEGOTIATION IN CONTEMPORARY MARRIAGE POLITICS 7 Table of Contents CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………….1 A. Theoretical Introduction to Hegemonic Marriage………………………………………...4 B. The Movements………………………………………………………………………….11 1. The Traditional Marriage Movement (TMM)……………………………………….12 2. The Marriage Movement (MM)…………………………………………………..…18 3. The Marriage Equality Movement (MEM)……………………………………….…26 C. Chapter Analytic Strategy………………………………………………………………..31 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW………………………………………………………....33 A. Feminist and Queer Critiques……………………………………………………………33 B. Hegemony……………………………………………………………………………..…43 C. Social Movement Framing……………………………………………………………….46 CHAPTER 3: METHODS………………………………………………………………………..53 A. Feminist CDA Theory and Methodology………………………………………………..55 B. Corpus Linguistics (CL) Theory and Methodology……………………………………...58 C. Combining CDA and CL: Research Design……………………………………………..62 D. Analytical Procedure…………………………………………………………………..…64 1. Newspaper headline textual analysis………………………………………………...66 2. Interview corpus textual and corpus analysis………………………………………..67 3. Web corpus analysis………………………………………………………………....70 4. Social practices analysis…………………………………………………………..…71 E. Feminist Researcher……………………………………………………………………...72 CHAPTER 4: TEXTUAL ANALYSIS OF THE WASHINGTON POST CORPUS……………..75 A. Thematic Breakdown of Hegemonic Marriage…………………………………………..78 1. Trend #1: Reporting on divorce……………………………………………………..82 2. Trend #2: Reporting on children…………………………………………………….85 HEGEMONIC NEGOTIATION IN CONTEMPORARY MARRIAGE POLITICS 8 3. Trend #3: Reporting on same-sex marriage…………………………………………87 4. Trend #4: Reporting on traditional values…………………………………………...91 5. Trend #5: Reporting on policies…………………………………………………..…93 6. Trend #6: Reporting on welfare……………………………………………………..94 7. Trend #7: Reporting on prohibitions………………………………………………...96 B. Function of Identifying Trends…………………………………………………………..98 CHAPTER 5: THE MARRIAGE EQUALITY MOVEMENT………………………………....103 A. Textual Analysis (Description) of MEM Web Corpus………………………………....108 1. The early years – Building a movement……………………………………………109 2. Establishing a civil rights master frame……………………………………………110 3. Gaining momentum………………………………………………………………...112 4. The new majority…………………………………………………………………...114 B. Textual Analysis (Description) of MEM Interview Corpus……………………………117 1. Grassroots versus staff-driven SMOs……………………………………………....117 2. Message targets…………………………………………………………………….124 3. Beyond marriage…………………………………………………………………...127 C. Process Analysis (Interpretation) of MEM Interview Corpus………………………….129 1. MEM interview diagnostic frames: What is marriage?.............................................129 2. MEM interview prognostic frame: Rights………………………………………….134 D. MEM Corpus Linguistic (CL) Analysis………………………………………………..137 1. MEM diagnostic frame – Civil marriage is a legal institution…………………….139 2. MEM prognostic frame – Marriage is a right……………………………………..142 E. MEM Social Practices Analysis………………………………………………………...147 CHAPTER