Blog Post 4 -- Copeland

Burkean rhetoric introduced the theory of identification, which discussed the idea that people identify with one another before beginning to conversate. This idea that people pre-categorize you into a group, for example, you were seen eating pizza so you are mentally placed into the "I eat pizza" group or if you dressed more comfy one day then you are placed in the "lazy" category. Ratcliff brings this up by talking about the importance of listening and how gender, class, and race play a role in how well you listen. Ratcliff pointed out other rhetoricians who have argued the fragmentation of listening. Ratcliff argued that women often listen by smiling, nodding, asking questions, and providing encouraging verbal cues and men often listen by challenging speakers to a verbal duel to determine who knows more and who is quicker on his feet. She also argued that listening is not only gendered but informed by ethnicity and that listening is not as necessary in our culture for white people as it is for colored people. Lastly, she argued that listening is affected by social class. These are ways of identifying others, even when it is not intentional, like Burke explained in his theory of identification.