Scapegoats and Aliens: Institutionalized Shame in Divorce Court and Mandatory Parenting Classes

Scapegoats and Aliens: Institutionalized Shame in Divorce Court and Mandatory Parenting Classes

Peitho Volume 20 Issue 1 Fall/Winter 2017

Author(s): Jennifer Young

Abstract: The article is a rhetorical analysis of a state-mandated parenting class for divorcing partners. The analysis is deployed through a gender and affect studies lens and preceded by a narrative account of a class in Ohio. The thesis of the article is that mandatory parenting classes are justified through rhetorical means rather than pragmatic ones; I suggest that the primary effect of the classes is to shame parents rather than to benefit children.

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