Contemporary rhetorical theory has been spurred on by the re-examination of the concept of public. This article adds to that discussion by examining the WTO protests in Seattle, WA, in late 1999. The rhetorical concept of testimony helps us to more readily understand how publics and their counters create and sustain messages about themselves. Testimony demonstrates how individuals disseminate, justify, and complicate public and counterpublic agendas. We can no longer take public as a static rhetorical category. But it is equally apparent that testimony should give us pause as we consider where we shall take public and counterpublic theorizing.

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Stroud suggests that rhetoric and pragmatism will both gain by more interplay. He goes further, arguing that the results will yield a form of rhetorical practice that comes closer to activating the merits of theoretical pragmatism. The problem that develops, though, is one of definition. What does Stroud mean by the terms he uses? If rhetoric and pragmatism remained ill-defined, the chances for a productive alliance-and the melioristic results that might follow-are greatly diminished.

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There has been a substantial amount of productive scholarship, particularly in the areas of critical and cultural studies, regarding the depictions of women in metal music. At the same time, there remains a divide between this important academic work and those who are popular consumers of metal. This short essay offers a potential middle path between the two. Through the use of interviews with three women involved in creating content related to metal, the author offers a two-part suggestion: (1) that the divide itself might be a matter less of content than of translation and (2) that rhetoric, of the sort practiced in departments of speech communication, could potentially provide another useful option when presenting scholarship to popular audiences.