Artifact Analysis

Dylan Deines

4/14/16

Dr. Brown

Artifact Analysis

                With the groups configured, the goals defined, and the women more eager than ever to make a statement, the day of protest finally came. Over 50,000 women lined the streets all across the country to make their voices heard and their ideas echoed. Now came the question, how was the best way to convey their notions? In this section we will be analyzing the rhetorical artifacts used by the women of the WSP, specifically, the slogans they used and their rhetorical effectiveness.

                The women of the WSP used their identity as mothers (mostly because of their rhetorical goals as well as the influence by the media) to inspire the type of slogans they used during their one-day protest that happened on November 1, 1961. Women lined the streets of their respective locations, pushing “baby carriages [and] holding placards” (Swerdlow) that protested nuclear testing. The symbol of the carriage was an important artifact to the women of the WSP, which represented their motherhood in the most obvious of ways.

                The baby carriage wasn’t just an object to these women, it was a rhetorical device garnered to draw the most attention to their identity. Beyond the physical description of the carriage (a 4 legged, mobile, cart that makes transporting babies easier), the carriage represented motherhood, but not just the classical sense of “motherhood.” A baby carriage represented a women’s escape from domesticity. Without the baby carriage getting out of the house and socially interacting with society would be too much of a physical strain. The women’s “escape” from domesticity became their “freedom.” The carriage said much about the mother who owned one as well. It meant that they had an active or busy lifestyle. Daily tasks had to be completed despite having a kid, and it was the carriage that allowed women to get the things that needed to be completed complete. Using it as a rhetorical device, the women showed that they were just as obliged as any other man or woman to their “freedom” outside of the house; their freedom to speak out against the government; and their freedom to protest. It also showed that women had other things on the agenda other than their daily chores and toils at home. Because of the stroller women were able to get things done, and that idea was echoed when they used the carriage as a rhetorical device; it meant that women had political goals on their mind, and despite just being “mothers” they were going to do whatever they could to have their voices heard.

                Beyond the carriage was the women’s slogans such as “Save the Children”, “Testing Damages the Unborn,” and “Let’s Live in Peace, not Pieces,” (Swerdlow).

                The slogan “Save the Children” was an obvious, yet effective strategy. Like the carriage, the slogan helped form the “motherhood” idea that was so instrumental to their rhetorical goals and to their media attention. The slogan did a few things for their movement: It played with the stereotype of the image of women being nurturers to not only their children, but all children. The WSP put not just their own children’s livelihood in retrospect, but rather, all children. It made the protest relatable for everyone. The slogan was especially effective because of the recent baby boom that America had gone through after World War II. The baby boom was a patriotic effort to bring society back to normalcy; it was an attempt to make America even stronger after losing so much of its men. Why would society want to risk what they worked so hard to accomplish by allowing nuclear testing to go on? Children are an obvious importance at every point in history, but never were they more important than during the baby boom. The slogan scared people.  They did not want to lose anyone else to the war, or the aftermath of one.

                “Testing Damages the Unborn” is another extremely effective slogan, for it called for the future to be put in retrospect and also specifically targeted pregnant couples to challenge nuclear testing. The slogan is a single declarative sentence that’s purpose is to be informative, especially to those who were unaware of the effects of nuclear testing. It was not just the children that were already alive, it was even the children that were unborn; it was not just the present, it was even the future. Many thought that the Cold War would lead to the first nuclear war and consequently the end of the world, but little knew that even the preparation of a nuclear warfare would lead to health concerns. Like the other slogan, this was a scare tactic that appealed to the emotion of its listeners, but also used the strategy of Kairos to be even more effective. Because of the recent baby boom, the importance that was put on children, and the Cold War became the most opportune moment for the slogan to take form.

                Finally, “Let’s Live in Peace, not Pieces” is the final artifact we will be analyzing. Another scare tactic, the slogan above evokes some quite devastating imagery that reminded people of the images they saw during World War II. Film coverage of the war showed people at home how devastating war could be. The slogan also called into remembrance of the first nuclear bombs ever to be dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Images of the mushroom cloud and the shadows of human beings stuck on walls after be disintegrated came into listeners’ minds. The slogan obviously leads to one answer, to live in peace rather than to die. The obviousness of the answer to the slogan led many to support the ideas that the WSP had and as well as join the movement for peace. The slogan’s word play on the word “peace” and “pieces” also put the protest on a spectrum; on one side you have what the WSP was fighting for, peace, and the other side is represented by the government, who, to the WSP at least, rather see people in literal “pieces” than a world of “peace.”

                The artifacts used in the protest had to especially be effective because the protest was only a one-day event. Unlike other protests that take on a series of events, the WSP did not have that luxury because all 50,000 women were mothers and therefore had other responsibilities. For these women to drop everything for this one-day event, however, was effective itself. It showed society exactly how serious these women were and how they expected to be treated as such.