Speaking well: The benevolent public and rhetorical production of neoliberal political economy

Abstract

This essay shows how race and gender are central to the rhetorical production of neoliberal political economy. It examines how the mainstream and feminist-appearing movement for girls’ empowerment is in service of the continued production of neoliberal political economy and in service of cultivating a benevolent public based on a sense of economic exceptionalism—a new form of the bourgeois public sphere that values neoliberalism and positive actions of charity and goodwill taken on another’s behalf. The production of neoliberal political economy and the formation of a benevolent neoliberal public sphere, particularly around girls’ empowerment, is animated by racialized and gendered girl-empowerment discourses which link particular young brown bodies to arguments about girls’ potential (economic and otherwise), educational aspirations, economic investment, and international security.