TY - JOUR
T1 - The rhetoric of "family values"
T2 - Scapegoating, utopia, and the privatization of social responsibility
AU - Cloud, Dana L.
PY - 1998/12/1
Y1 - 1998/12/1
N2 - This article performs an ideographic analysis of the bipartisan political deployment of the slogan "family values" during the 1992 Presidential election campaign. The analysis shows that "family values" talk functioned during that campaign to scapegoat Black men and poor Americans for social problems. However, the "family values" ideograph also is invested with a gendered utopian narrative that makes its scapegoating less apparent and more persuasive. Ultimately, in constructing the family as the site of all responsibility and change, the rhetoric of "family values" privatizes social responsibility for ending poverty and racism.
AB - This article performs an ideographic analysis of the bipartisan political deployment of the slogan "family values" during the 1992 Presidential election campaign. The analysis shows that "family values" talk functioned during that campaign to scapegoat Black men and poor Americans for social problems. However, the "family values" ideograph also is invested with a gendered utopian narrative that makes its scapegoating less apparent and more persuasive. Ultimately, in constructing the family as the site of all responsibility and change, the rhetoric of "family values" privatizes social responsibility for ending poverty and racism.
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U2 - 10.1080/10570319809374617
DO - 10.1080/10570319809374617
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0032268449
SN - 1057-0314
VL - 62
SP - 387
EP - 419
JO - Western Journal of Communication
JF - Western Journal of Communication
IS - 4
ER -