Do You Have a Voice Yet?

Summary of Introduction

Jaimee Garbacik, the author of Gender and Sexuality for Beginners, introduces this book by discussing what she and young people find is the current “most pressing issue of our time” (Garbacik, 1). She claims that the array of answers is due to a discrepancy in gender. This discrepancy is due to the current language and use of categories of genders in which many cases, some people do not fit under. One of Jaimee’s biggest concerns is how this affects young people. Adult’s rules and policies are hindering young people’s livelihoods to the point where many don’t see a happy future and commit suicide. “In fact, 30 percent of lesbian, gay, and bisexual youths attempt suicide between the age of fifteen and twenty-four (Garbacik, 2). Throughout the introduction, Jaimee discusses the issues of categorizing this fight under one name and the complications even people apart of specific communities like LGBTQIA or feminism face. The most important people can do is not only support the youth, but learn from them. The purpose of this book is to educate the reader about the current “discriminations in our society that limit every citizen’s aptitude and personal expression” (Garbacik, 5). All in all, this introduction provides the basis for what reader’s should anticipate in future chapters, and what the writer, Jaimee Garbacik, expects, and hopes, for the reader to gain.

The Rhetorical Situation:

• The rhetorical situation that Garbacik is responding to is the issue of people’s understanding of gender and sexuality in our societies. In particularly, adult’s lack of wanting to learn from the young people. Through young people, society can diminish the barriers of labels. The main audience for this book, in my eyes, are the people that are aware of the issues, but may not fully know the how to digest or take action on the given information. The purpose of this book is for readers to finish the book understanding how their actions and assumptions impact other human beings. Readers should expect to learn lexicon, motivation to dig deeper for information, and to further educate and spread the awareness of this topic.

The Rhetorical Strategies:

• Throughout the introduction, Jaimee reveals her personal investments, establishes her qualifications, or lack of, acknowledges her sources, and even articulates the audience this book is intended for. She is able to support her claims and facts from gathering information through interviews with various communities, reflecting on her personal experiences, and providing strong and emotional statistics. Her ability to be rhetorically aware of her audience, people who are ill informed on the issues as well as people apart of the LGBTQIA community and numerous other communities, is apparent in her writing due to her ability to look and understand different stances individual’s stand by.

The “Writer’s Identity”:

• Garbacik takes on a strong identity in this book. She immediately presents herself as someone an audience can trust by providing factual situations that have occurred in our society, as well as meaningful and emotional statics that show how prevalent this issue truly is today. Even better, she fully understands the importance of knowing how to communicate with different communities, a concept that was presented in the book, Understanding Rhetoric. While reading this introduction, I felt that she was conveying a message to two audiences. The first audience is the uniformed people, in particularly many adults. The second audience is the young people, regardless of them knowing a little or a lot about the complicated issues about to be discussed. With this in mind, Garbacik knows when and what it is appropriate to say at the right time. BY combining all of these concepts, Garbacik is allowed to express her concerns, ideas, and vision of the future in a credible way that will permit a reader to gain awareness on the issues centered around gender and sexuality.

Cover for “Gender and Sexuality for Beginners” by Jaimee Garbacik

New AND Improved

Here is a new and improved rhetorical analysis of the same article that I read for the last assignment. This article,http://elitedaily.com/women/skinny-should-stop-being-used-as-a-compliment/, discusses media’s current role in “demonizing fat” and the issues with why saying someone looks skinny is NOT a compliment. I will analyze this authors argument article through the use of logos, ethos, and pathos.

The authors argument in this article is very clear and concise….being skinny is no compliment, and the author brings many examples of how women, both celebrities and average women, struggle with body image. The author’s argument is that media is controlling what size women “think” they should be through various forms of medium. The author provides numerous examples of how the media influences young and old women’s perception of body image. The fact that the author is a woman gives her a large amount of credibility of where her opinion is stemming from. What woman hasn’t looked in the mirror and wished a part of her was skinny or had less cellulite? What woman hasn’t looked at a celebrity’s body and used that as a standard to one day reach through diet, or lack of, and maybe exercise. Using the Tori Spelling story really provides not only strong evidence that the media can “twist” how things are perceived, but how women in the lime light face strong scrutiny from the media and feel forced to be upheld to a higher standard in terms of how their body looks. The use of these elements provides ethos for the author.

The author uses a lot of emotions throughout the article and it makes her argument even stronger. She shows sympathy for every women no matter what their size. She expresses her concern on the way media influences young women to be skinny and the effect it has on the women that struggle with their weight. At the end, she even expresses sympathy for the women that are already extremely skinny because at that point you have no weight to lose and you don’t even have to go to the gym. On the other hand, the author shows her hatred for what the media has done. I really enjoyed her opening paragraphs about women’s role in society and its relationship with being “skinny”. Through the combination of emotions and sympathy, the author utilizes pathos.

While reading this article, I felt the overall structure was easy to follow. The author opened up with a powerful, inviting opening statement about the norms of females role in society.  It was clear and concise. The author respectfully got her opinions out there in a way that was supported by evidence and connected to her main argument that skinny is not a compliment. Women know that media’s influence is hindering women’s confidence on their body weight, but what’s worse is they continue to let it control their daily habits. The logos of this article is clear: that media influences body image negatively and that women shouldn’t use skinny as a compliment.

The problem is….

I read this moving article, http://elitedaily.com/women/skinny-should-stop-being-used-as-a-compliment/, from an editor at Elite Daily that discusses media’s current role in “demonizing fat” and the issues with why saying someone looks skinny is NOT a compliment.

Ethos: This article holds a large degree of credibility. The author is in fact a woman and what woman hasn’t questioned her body in the mirror or wished to be 5lbs lighter?  Whether it be in the numerous forms of media, personal life experiences, or just the simple notations that go along with being a woman, this author tells it all and isn’t ashamed to share her opinion. On that note, the author does express a lot of her own opinions and doesn’t have any sources reflecting on her stand, but I would say a large amount would come forward. Today, I would say that this topic is a well known fact and that the way media encourages woman of all ages to be “skinny” is shifting.

Pathos: The author uses a lot of emotions throughout the article. She shows sympathy for every women no matter what their size. She expresses her concern on the way media influences young women to be skinny and the effect it has on the women that struggle with their weight. At the end, she even expresses sympathy for the women that are already extremely skinny because at that point you have no weight to lose and you don’t even have to go to the gym. On the other hand, the author shows her hatred for what the media has done. I really enjoyed her opening paragraphs about women’s role in society and its relationship with being “skinny”.

Logos: While reading this article, I felt the overall structure was easy to follow. It was clear and concise. The author respectfully got her opinions out there in a way that was supported by evidence and connected to her main argument that skinny is not a compliment.