What warrants exigence? My Dad has always said that people will only change when they have experienced enough pain that they can no longer continue the behaviors that detriments them. In a humanistic way, I think the statement is an example of the exigence we experience in our own lives. We will only realize something needs to happen or change when we realize our circumstances are disastrous on our own account in this case. The urgency is that we need to change and the constraints are both ourselves or our present situation.
In Mona Lisa Smile, Betty is the character that experiences exigence both in her family and marital situation. I’d even argue that Betty is the character in the movie that has the most development on account of her realizing the thing that needs to change is her. After Spencer has an affair and her family encourages her to stay married to him, we begin to see changes in her. The vulnerability she shows with Giselle after hearing about her affair with the psychoanalyst is emotional but is the breaking point and pressure that shows Betty is changing. The exigence she experiences has both to do with herself and the times around her. Her family asked her to stay with Spencer for the sake of being image-conscious. A divorced woman is not desirable in that time period, it is the equivalent of a scarlet letter that wards men away. Betty realizes that continuing this cycle of toxic thought and behaviour patterns through both herself and others only hurts herself and others. She then makes the active choice to join Giselle in New York and eventually go to Law School. If we most actively have control of ourselves then does rhetoric and exigence have a larger effect?
Rhetoric is incredibly situational and in application to exigence we have seen it in our lives. Recently, Harvey Weinstein was charged as guilty of sexual assault. The idea of the Hollywood casting couch has been around for decades but is called into question with this trial. There was exigence surrounding this situation. While many actresses called his behavior out, the constraint was brought up against their careers and by other public figures that sided with him. When they would demand Weinstein be held up to the court-of-law, he would go out of his way to bad mouth them and ruin their careers. While many who suffered because of his behavior cheered as he was finally brought to justice, those who gave him the cover of their friendship gently bow their heads without vocalizing their thoughts on his actions. In what ways can exigence be seen rhetorically? What are people’s reactions to it?
Exigence makes people uncomfortable, it pushes against the status quo and asks people to do more or make an effort to change. This can be done through deliberative rhetoric, asking others to change for a better future. This would lead you to picture someone leading a resistance as a crowd cheers on their leader who is making a boisterous stand against a corrupt government. Corruption occurs in more than the government as it is a human concept. We see a lot of it in human nature but it crosses over to international dealings. How is this corruption called out? How does self-awareness root its way into exigence?
In September 2019, South Park aired an episode called “Band in China”. The episode criticized the Chinese Government’s censorship of art and literature and how Hollywood bends to their will. Ironically after the episode aired on Comedy Central, China had permanently banned the series from their country. Matt Stone and Trey Parker issued a pseudo-apology to let China know they were not sorry for publishing their artwork. The tactic that Matt Stone and Trey Parker apply here in their use of exigence is satire (the thing they are best known for). The episode follows Stan as he forms a band with several of the other characters and is censored in the process when trying to publish a film on their music career as the producer continuously changes the script to cater to their “audience” within China (meaning what the government allows their audience to see), a secondary storyline follows Randy as he tries to move his business of selling weed to China and is met with an arrest as he arrives in the country. The episode and apology functions as criticism of lowering the ideals of freedom in order to please others in the film industry. This form of exigence brought to light aspects of censorship being used against writers when publishing their material and having it censored for the sake of capitalistic gain. For many young adults on social media it shed light on the Hong Kong protests and the threats that China held to citizens by passing a bill that threatened their ability to criticize the government. It also raised questions about our own country bending our creativity and integrity to please a country who was taking this use of free speech away from their citizens. This was a rhetorical call-to-action: articles were posted to boycott companies who supported China’s censorship, students showed up to events with t-shirts saying ‘stand with Hong Kong’, and it was listed to boycott the upcoming release of Mulan 2020 on account of the main actress supporting police brutality in China.
The idea that we are rhetorical as people plays into this notion of exigence. Injustice is brought to light and we are challenged to do something in order to change it and better the world we live in. Whether a declarative speech that causes a crowd to cheer or a simple question that leaves us thinking about our role in a situation and how we can change it, exigence in rhetoric gives us the power to do this. This use of language when used correctly is a valid use of criticism, protection for people and their rights, and a prominent usage for rhetoric. A voice asking for change can be one screaming out to a crowd that they have had enough or a snide comment opening a space for a conversation to take place.
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