You say Personal, I say Political…Let’s call the whole thing off

“The personal is political” mantra raises itself again in this week’s readings and Sally Miller Gearhart weighs in with another (and contrasting) perspective from both bell hooks and Sonia Johnson.

Whereas hooks believes that merely articulating one’s own socio-political experiences does not necessarily provide insight into the big picture, and Johnson cuts off all connection between her own experiences and her teaching and working, Gearhart finds a convincing middle ground that seems to be socially effective and self-empowering.

We see a transformation take place in Gearhart’s rhetorical options over the years. Once a militant public activist, an epiphany caused her to believe that the intention to change someone else does violence to that other person, and therefore is wrong. Yet even with that belief, she is not content to remove herself entirely from society.

Among her methods for social change is re-sourcement, “the transformation of the current system through a collective sharing of re-sourced or healing energy among feminist women. This option allows for the enactment of new values, new ways of understanding and new ways of viewing reality…” (FRT, 271).

She notes the connection between women – in fact among all of nature – and believes that the “presencing” of women with each other creates energy that can be shared by rhetors. From there, “the collective aspect of re-sourcement transforms the individual experience of cosmic energy into a political force” (FRT, 271).

Gearhart emphasizes the importance of renewing the self by being true to women’s ways of knowing and communicating, yet she also sees that such an effort can have strong ramifications out in the world.

All three cause us to reconsider our notions of rhetorical space, or where as rhetors we choose to make a difference or not to take action: within, without or both.