Abstract
The purpose of this study was fourfold: first, to analyze reader evaluations of Sarah Palin’s role in the pregnancy as mother and statesperson; second, to identify and examine the major rhetorical strategies used to position Bristol Palin as either a private or public subject; third, to identify the schemas, or stereotypes, employed in discussions about Bristol Palin’s teen pregnancy and how these schemas were reinforced, negotiated, and/or rejected through reader discourse; and fourth, to understand how these rhetorical themes implicate and influence the metadiscourse surrounding teen pregnancy in the United States. To investigate these questions, a feminist rhetorical analysis was performed on reader responses to the news of Bristol Palin’s pregnancy from a sample consisting of conservative, liberal, and popular internet news sites.
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