Rhetorical Interactions of Social Movement Organizations in a Movement: A Study of the Intersex Rights Advocacy Movement

Abstract

While rhetorical scholars have long studied social movements, few studies investigate the rhetorical interactions of organizations working within a single movement. In this dissertation, I explore the rhetoric deployed by several social movement organizations and analyze the ways that discourse functions to produce and limit opportunities for the organizations to coalesce and work as a single, unified movement. In this dissertation, I develop a theory of social movement organizations by analyzing the four leading intersex rights organizations in the United States, including the Intersex Society of North America, the Accord Alliance, the Advocates for Informed Choice, and the Organisation Intersex International. I explore how their constructions of organizational identity and their positions on naming, parental informed consent, and gender create opportunities for some to cooperate, while ensuring divergences among other groups. I conclude by discussing the implications these individual debates have on the success of the overall intersex advocacy movement.