Campus Location
Abilene Campus (Residential)
Date of Award
5-2026
Document Type
Thesis
Department
Communication
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Committee Chair or Primary Advisor
Kholo Theledi
Second Committee Member or Secondary Advisor
Randall Fowler
Third Committee Member or Committee Reader
James Prather
Abstract
This thesis examines how generative artificial intelligence constructs and performs gender roles through a rhetorical analysis of the fully AI-generated podcast Fairytale Forensics. Drawing on theories of constitutive rhetoric, stereotyping, and McLuhan’s approach to the medium, this thesis investigates how AI-generated hosts interpret classic fairy tales while simultaneously reproducing and negotiating gender norms through the lens of prosopopoeia, metonymy and synecdoche. These performances rely on normative gender stereotypes that align with broader societal expectations, thereby potentially reinforcing existing cultural assumptions about masculinity and femininity. Ultimately, it demonstrates that AI-generated discourse does not merely reflect human biases but actively participates in the constitutive process through which gendered identities are formed and understood.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Boaz, Jessica, ""Am I a Man or a Muppet": A Rhetorical Analysis of Generative AI’s Representation of Gender" (2026). Digital Commons @ ACU, Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 1009.
https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/etd/1009
Included in
Communication Technology and New Media Commons, Critical and Cultural Studies Commons, Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Ethnicity in Communication Commons, Speech and Rhetorical Studies Commons