Tournament: UT - Austin | Round: 1 | Opponent: NA | Judge: NA
Women In Debate - 1AC
Every debater has a different reason for joining the activity. I personally joined as preparation for my future, seeing as there are numerous scholarships and life skills gained by this inclusion. The key word there is inclusion. With Middle Eastern heritage, there is a different role in society depending on if you are a male or a female. Growing up I was around male cousins, and I was daddy’s girl, so of course I would want the place of a male- I played soccer, handed dad tools and learned about the makes and models of cars he would work on in his free time, and sometimes I would go to construction sites when he worked for thermal windows. As I grew older, however, I was expected to fit in my place as a daughter, and not a son. When dad had friends over, I spend less time in the garage and more time in the house. During formal visits, as stereotypical as it may sound, I spent more time in the kitchen, or serving tea, coffee, nuts and fruits as opposed to talking politics and playing cards with the men. At first, debate was exiting seeing as it was a chance to get away from the sexist chains that determined the whether or not I played my traditional role in the family. However, as it turns out, the debate community seems to give less freedom than my other life. For example, at the last debate camp I went to, I was told about a judge who only listens to the debate if it’s two male teams against each other. If there is a female debater in the room, he would vote off of her looks. If she was “sexy” or wearing a dress suit, he voted for her, and if its two female teams, he votes on who wears the most revealing clothes. My freshman year, I had a college judge who said before the round started that he wouldn’t vote for my team because he always either votes on speaker points or the size of breasts and the amount of cleavage shown. He had two of his friends join him in the round, and showed no respect to either team by passing notes and joking around during our prep time. At the time, I shrugged it off because he was the judge, so there isn’t anything we could do about it, but looking back now, I should have told my coach or done something about it. The stories go on and on, and many women in the debate world just try to ignore it and want to not face the issue, but it’s about time someone stands up and stops the demoralization in the debate world, followed by the real world.
Debate is robbing women of their voice by not allowing a personal perspective of the damaging problems facing me and other women in society; this only makes debate complicit with the problems of sexism, sexualharassment, and assault;it is time for the debatecommunity to have a discussion.
Timmons and Boyer 13 (Cindi Timmons is a member of the National Forensic League Hall of Fame, a three-diamond coach, and the Lone Star District Chair from Greenhill School in Texas. Bekah Boyer is a senior at Southern Methodist University in Texas and is completing a double major in Women’sStudies and Art History. She is also the president of SMU’s Women’s Interest Network, and is currently an assistant debate coach. To read other perspectives and contribute to the conversation, visit www.ForensicsOnline.net, visit the Rostrum Magazine section, and look for “Women in Speech and Debate: Additional Narratives.” Join the conversation at 5) www.ForensicsOnline.net. Rostrum | FALL 2013 27 www.nationalforensicleague.org ionalforensicleague.org today!
Additional contributions by Steffany Batik, Beth Eskin, Annie Kors, and Rebecca Kuang
Women are underrepresented by nearly 9 to 1 in policy debate; Inclusion in the debate community gives women the power to have a voice.
Timmons and Boyer 13
Cindi Timmons is a member of the National Forensic League Hall of Fame, a three-diamond coach, and the Lone Star District Chair from Greenhill School in Texas. Bekah Boyer is a senior at Southern Methodist University in Texas and is completing a double major in Women’s Studies and Art History. She is also the president of SMU’s Women’s Interest Network, and is currently an assistant debate coach. To read other perspectives and contribute to the conversation, visit www.ForensicsOnline.net, visit the Rostrum Magazine section, and look for “Women in Speech and Debate: Additional Narratives.” Join the conversation at www.ForensicsOnline.net. Rostrum | FALL 2013 27 www.nationalforensicleague.org ionalforensicleague.org today!
The debate world and the real world are linked together giving speech and debate the power to transform individuals and society; The complacency andignorance in the status quo creates and contributes to the real obstacles to full participation by women in debate ; Through awareness and education we can work togetheras a community to remove the barriers to women in debate.
Timmons and Boyer 13
Cindi Timmons is a member of the National Forensic League Hall of Fame, a three-diamond coach, and the Lone Star District Chair from Greenhill School in Texas. Bekah Boyer is a senior at Southern Methodist University in Texas and is completing a double major in Women’s Studies and Art History. She is also the president of SMU’s Women’s Interest Network, and is currently an assistant debate coach. To read other perspectives and contribute to the conversation, visit www.ForensicsOnline.net, visit the Rostrum Magazine section, and look for “Women in Speech and Debate: Additional Narratives.” Join the conversation at www.ForensicsOnline.net. Rostrum | FALL 2013 27 www.nationalforensicleague.org ionalforensicleague.org today!
The roll of the ballot is for the team who best methodologically shifts debate away from the masculine form into a form of inclusion.
Our Methodology is to acknowledge the problem that current modes of debate demoralize feminist mindsets and favor masculinity; thus we advocate: That everyone commits themselves for a revolution of inclusion in the debate community. This call for the ballot is a referendum for the revolution to include oppressed voices into the debate space.; Tthe current masculine structure attempts to win at all costs with non-rational argumentation. Instead, Krystin and I choose to involve others with rational argumentation to avoid the masculine mindset.
Yuill 13
Derek Yuill competed in forensics for four years at Lafayette Jefferson High School, IN under the direction of Denise Walker and has coached high school speech and debate for the past 23 years. He is currently the Director of Forensics at Gabrielino High School in the Los Angeles, CA area and the Chair of the East Los Angeles/Orange County District. He was the 2003 National Fornensic League National Coach of the Year. References Allen, M., Trejo, M., Bartanen, M., Schroeder, A. and Ulrich, T. (2004) Diversity in United States forensics: A report on research conducted for the American Forensic Association. Argumentation and Advocacy. 40 (2), 173-184.Bruschke, J. and Johnson, A. (1994).An analysis of differences in male and female debaters.Argumentation and Advocacy. 30 (3), 162-173. Friedley, S.A. and Manchester, B.B. (1985).An analysis of male/female participation in select national championships. National Forensic Journal, 3 (1), 1-12.Friedley, S.A. and Manchester, B.B. (1987).An examination of male/female judging decisions in individual events. National Forensic Journal, 5 (1), 11-20.Kirtley, M.D. and Weaver, J.B. (1999).Exploring the impact of gender role selfperception on communication style.Women’s Studies in Communication. 22 (2), 190-209. Mazur, M.A. (2001). Women in parliamentary debate: An examination of women’s performance at the National Parliamentary Debate Association’s national tournament. Parliamentary Debate: the NPDA Journal, 8, 31-36. Manchester, B.B. andFriedley, S.A. (2003). Revisiting male/female participation and success in forensics: Has time changed the playing field. National Forensic Journal, 21 (2), 20-35. Murphy, J.M. (1989). Separate and unequal: Women in the public address events. National Forensic Journal, 7 (2), 115-126. 20 Rostrum
This masculine ideology is the root cause of all proliferation, environmental destruction, domestic violence, and war
Warren and Cady 94(Karen J, Duane L, feminists and authors, Hypatia, “Feminism and Peace: Seeing connections,” pg 16-17)
Discussion of feminism is key to the reinforcing the individual because in a world where we let policies dominate debate, the individual becomes disempowered because they are excluded.
Nhanenge 7
– Master of Arts at the development studies @ the University of South Africa (Jytte “Ecofeminism: Towards Integrating the concerns of women poor people and nature into development” http://uir.unisa.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10500/570/dissertation.pdf?sequence=1) - JS