Theorizing Listening as a Tool for Social Change: Andrea Dworkin’s Discourses on Listening

Abstract

Theorizing listening’s multifarious functions has meaningful potential for critical communication studies. I argue that our understanding of listening can be enriched by examining the discourses of the U.S. radical lesbian feminist Andrea Dworkin. Employing and extending McRae’s method of performative listening, I argue that Dworkin’s rhetoric can be read as a theory and practice of radical, caring listening that promotes social change and moves us toward collective action.