Teaching Argument Writing with Frankenstories

Most people who bother with the matter at all would admit that the English language is in a bad way, but it is generally assumed that we cannot by conscious action do anything about it. Our civilization is decadent and our language – so the argument runs – must inevitably share in the general collapse. It follows that any struggle against the abuse of language is a sentimental archaism, like preferring candles to electric light or hansom cabs to aeroplanes. Underneath this lies the half-conscious belief that language is a natural growth and not an instrument which we shape for our own purposes.

Is God bad for women? Media consumers in North America and Europe are probably familiar with this narrative: conservative and fundamentalist religions—those that take religion seriously and politicize religiosity—are on the rise, and that’s bad for women. In France, wearing a headscarf in public spaces is decried as an affront to French notions of citizenship and to women’s personhood. In the United States, Afghan women’s plight at the hands of the Taliban was used as a justification for American intervention. Since the emancipation of women and the diversification of family forms and sexualities are among the hallmarks of modernity and secularization, and since fundamentalist religious groups tend to hold traditional views on gender, sexuality, and the family, conservative religions are typically viewed as antithetical to women’s interests (not to mention modern, democratic ideals of choice and the freedom to chart one’s own destiny).