https://journals.lib.sfu.ca/index.php/thirdspace <p><span class="author">thirdspace</span> is a peer-reviewed journal, offering work in English and French, that aims to presents the best in scholarship on feminist theory and culture. We envision a broad definition of studies in "feminist theory and culture" which can include, but are not limited to, development and applications of feminist theory; cultures of feminism and feminist movement (including academia); and feminist cultural studies.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>thirdspace is not accepting submissions at this time.</em></p> en-US thirdspace: a journal of feminist theory and culture <p>This work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/" rel="license">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License</a>.</p> https://journals.lib.sfu.ca/index.php/thirdspace/article/view/el-shall In this essay, I posit President Obama's hopeful promise--"Yes, we can!"--within the framework of American liberal discourse. I examine how both the promise and the discourse within which it fits disguise the material realities of exclusion and oppression behind vague principles of freedom and equality. By parsing Obama's phrase and tracing its roots to the origins of American notions of identity, I try to show how the national collective imagined in the phrase "Yes, we can," is situated against assumptions of an Other--primarily African-American. I argue that such vague notions of a national collective serve not to unite, but rather to marginalize. Those who cannot or do not identify with the majority are often left out of the discussion. In this vein, I propose that arguments often made in the name of national interest--the collective "we" imagined in Obama's phrase-- serve many, but not all, and that such discourse is historically undergirded by an ideology of individualism and self-help, an ideology fueling current arguments against government programs benefiting the nation's poorest citizens. Maryam El-Shall Copyright (c) 2011-05-25 2011-05-25 10 1 https://journals.lib.sfu.ca/index.php/thirdspace/article/view/landreau This essay argues that the logic of President Obama’s national security rhetoric is based upon, and oriented by, the logic of American masculinity, and more specifically by the forms of presidential masculinity that have structured national security thinking in our political culture since World War II. His December 2009 decision to escalate military violence in Afghanistan is testimony to the enduring power a national mythology grounded in narratives of glorified violence and masculinity. Methodologically, the essay combines the critical resources of feminist International Relations scholarship with Rhetoric and the close-reading of texts. John C Landreau Copyright (c) 2011-05-25 2011-05-25 10 1 https://journals.lib.sfu.ca/index.php/thirdspace/article/view/byrne This article takes the speech that Barack Obama made in his campaign for democratic nomination in 2008 as a moment in the performativity of race. It argues that Obama was unable to sustain an attempt to be 'post race', but is also asks the extent to which Obama was able to re-write the way in which race is positioned within the US, particularly with reference to the place of African-Americans within the national narrative. Bridget Byrne Copyright (c) 2011-05-25 2011-05-25 10 1 https://journals.lib.sfu.ca/index.php/thirdspace/article/view/gorman In this article I will argue that the ideology of white supremacy is currently being reproduced as an ideology of political supremacy. I explore narratives of Obama and my father, and bring a transnational feminist framework to an examination of ontological and cultural ideologies of mixed race identity. Rachel Gorman Copyright (c) 2011-05-25 2011-05-25 10 1 https://journals.lib.sfu.ca/index.php/thirdspace/article/view/white This paper seeks to understand how Michelle Obama's race and gender were invoked and deployed in her public appearances throughout the 2008 US presidential election. It aims to introduce a new conversation about the construction of Michelle Obama’s rhetorical campaign persona in relationship to race and gender, with an emphasis on viewing her as another carefully-scripted presidential campaign production created to bolster her husband's candidacy. Through keyword analyses of four speeches, this piece also examines the ways in which Michelle Obama employs or excludes biographical and historical formations of race and gender when presenting herself to diverse audiences. Khadijah L. White Copyright (c) 2011-05-25 2011-05-25 10 1 https://journals.lib.sfu.ca/index.php/thirdspace/article/view/reviews_kock Stacia Kock Copyright (c) 2011-05-25 2011-05-25 10 1 https://journals.lib.sfu.ca/index.php/thirdspace/article/view/reviews_collins Janelle Collins Copyright (c) 2011-05-25 2011-05-25 10 1 https://journals.lib.sfu.ca/index.php/thirdspace/article/view/reviews_hughes Krista E. Hughes Copyright (c) 2011-05-25 2011-05-25 10 1 https://journals.lib.sfu.ca/index.php/thirdspace/article/view/reviews_schreiber Rachel Schreiber Copyright (c) 2011-05-25 2011-05-25 10 1 https://journals.lib.sfu.ca/index.php/thirdspace/article/view/reviews_craig This review discusses Rebecca Walker's 2009 anthology, One Big Happy Family: 18 Writers Talk About Polyamory, Open Adoption, Mixed Marriage, Househusbandry, Single Motherhood, and Other Realities of Truly Modern Love. Layne Parish Craig Copyright (c) 2011-05-25 2011-05-25 10 1 https://journals.lib.sfu.ca/index.php/thirdspace/article/view/reviews_funke Jana Funke Copyright (c) 2011-05-25 2011-05-25 10 1 https://journals.lib.sfu.ca/index.php/thirdspace/article/view/editorial%2010_1 Holly Kent Copyright (c) 2011-05-25 2011-05-25 10 1