RA #3

Rhetorical Analysis

Title: “Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt”: Advertising and Violence

Author: Jean Kilbourne
Date: 1999

Topic: How advertising dehumanizes people (especially women) and mimics sexual violence and pornography to sell products

Analysis of argument

Exigence: The use of pornographic images and violence in advertising

Intended audience: American consumers, especially young people for whom ads for perfumes, beer, and clothing are generally intended.

Purpose: to explain the prevalence of ads which represent people’s bodies (especially those of women) as objects, sexualize children and mimic pornography and violence, as well as to explain how this type of advertising changes the way people think about one another and effects our behavior.

Claims: the author claims that companies use violent and pornographic images and images which sexualize children in order to sell their products because it is shocking and sometimes appealing to consumers, but it is overall damaging to society and individuals in the end.

Main evidence: the author uses a multitude of advertising images to prove her point; she also uses logic, statistics regarding sexual assault (“the rate of sexual assault in the united states is the highest of any industrialized nation in the world… one in five of us has been the victim of rape or attempted rape”(Par 25).), specific court cases (a male baby sitter in Canada was acquitted of child molestation because the judge decided the 3 year old victim was “sexually aggressive” (par 30)), and noteworthy cultural occurrences (the trend of sexualizing adolescent girls in school uniforms (“Loli-con”) in Japan, the sensationalized JonBenet Ramsey murder case), and quotes and citations from reliable sources (Nan Stein, reasearcher at Wellesley college regarding abuse, an article from the journal ‘eating disorders’, an editorial from ‘advertising age’ regarding beer advertisements).

Rhetorical analysis

Writers strategy #1: ethos: the author cited statistics from the federal government, people connected to well known academic institutions, and publications related to her topic, but overwhelmingly used the advertising images themselves.

Writers strategy #2: pathos: the author tried to connect with the reader by soliciting sympathy for victims of rape and abuse which is commonplace in a society that is complicit in dehumanizing people to sell products.

Writers strategy #3: logos: the author used logos extensively through well researched facts and statistics and solid reasoning as well as by providing a multitude of examples.

Reader effect #1: as the reader I was convinced that the author was well educated on the subject and had done substantial research. The sources, statistics and evidence she chose to use were convincing and fit well into the article.

Reader effect #2: The author was successful in demonstrating the real world consequences of a society that dehumanizes people.

Reader effect #3: The author's argument was logical and convincing, she backed up her claims with good evidence and reasoning.

Your response

Defend, qualify, refute: I agree with the author that the use of advertising images which depict violence against women, images which reduce women to body parts and dehumanize them, and images which sexualize children are damaging to society and to the individual’s psyche.