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Abstract
This dissertation proposes a supplementary materialist theory of visual rhetoric and methodological perspective of visual rhetorical criticism and creation that I term gazing-imaging. I apply this theory and methodological perspective to case studies of the symbolic ideological, physical, and affective interaction between 20 women of various childbearing ages today and digital photography in general, and with four digital photographs in particular. Specifically, I rhetorically critique how the women interacted (and at times hesitated to interact) with digital photography in general in four main ways: they captured happy family moments and/or memories, 2) they connected family, 3) they circulated happy family digital photographs, and 4) they changed family digital photographs. I argue that the material reproduction of happy family is one major rhetorical force of gazing-imaging done by todays women of childbearing age and digital photography. A second rhetorical force of gazing-imaging was the material reproduction and stealth subversion of pregnant sirens that occurred when the women interacted (and hesitated to interact) with a particular digital photograph by cropping and censoring (the skin of) (hetero)sexually-seductive and naked pregnant female models. A third rhetorical force of gazing-imaging was the comedic material reproduction and subversion of traditional male masculinity, along with the material reproduction of a pregnant (trans)man and happy family that occurred when the women interacted with two additional photographs. I close this dissertation with a rhetorical creation that recommends the reproduction of another happy family by collage-ing family digital photographs.