The embodied maternal rhetorics of Serena Williams

This essay examines how and why the lived, experienced, and complicated maternal body matters in influencing public conversations about motherhood. Through analysis of Serena Williams's acts of rhetorical agency (writings, interviews, and celebrity branding), I trace her employment of three dis...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inCommunication and critical/cultural studies Vol. 18; no. 4; pp. 349 - 368
Main Author Borda, Jennifer L.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Abingdon Routledge 02.10.2021
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects
Athletes
body rhetoric
Celebrities
celebrity motherhood
Cultural studies
Culture
intersectional rhetoric
maternal embodiment
motherhood rhetorics
Mothers
Tennis
Williams, Serena
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Summary:This essay examines how and why the lived, experienced, and complicated maternal body matters in influencing public conversations about motherhood. Through analysis of Serena Williams's acts of rhetorical agency (writings, interviews, and celebrity branding), I trace her employment of three distinct, but related, embodied rhetorical strategies-maternal vulnerability, ambivalence, and empowerment. I argue that Serena elevates the "rhetorical saliency" of motherhood at the intersections of race, privilege, power, and celebrity while addressing how we need to think about various issues impacting mothers in a more interconnected way, and how different mothers are (or may be) interconnected because of these issues.
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ISSN:1479-1420
1479-4233
DOI:10.1080/14791420.2021.1905167