Proposal #2

Title: Men and Women in Society

Author: Billy Drury

Date: 11 November 2012

Topic: Ways in which society promotes certain values based on gender.

Exigence: Society might discourage men or women from following their goals and/or desires.

Intended Audience: General Public, especially those who believe gender to be the ultimate roadmap for life.

Purpose: To inform readers that people, regardless of male or female, are capable of achieving similar goals.

Claims: 1. Society encourages people, based on their gender, to follow certain jobs, hobbies, professions, or other areas of activity. 2. Society sets a standard for people to live up to, based on their gender. 3. People can overcome the norms of society to obtain what he or she truly wants from life.

 

Claim 1: Society influences people to exist as they are, especially upon the person’s gender. Society includes family, community, and culture, all of which promote a certain guideline for males and females. In the male aspect, family may encourage boys to succeed in sports, perhaps even certain sports, to be considered a good man. Some parents may be more proud to introduce their son as an all-star football player rather than a video game wiz. In the female aspect, some parents may likely favor their daughter to be an active dancer rather than the rebellious punk rocker. Athletic activities are common influences for children to be considered “good” or “bad” in society. Eventually, as these children grow older, they may be influenced to take certain jobs. As I have personally seen in society, men are prone to pursue jobs such as construction, which resemble strength and hard work, characteristics that fall into the realm of manhood. Women, on the other hand, are encouraged to pursue jobs that are more feminine, such as modeling, fashion, and other areas that fall into the realm of being pretty. Also, women may even be discouraged to centralize on a profession; they may abide by the traditional value to stay home.

 

Claim 2: In several different ways, society sets an ideal for men and women to follow. One of the primary and most effective ways in which society sets the gender-standard is through advertisement. People ordinarily consume time by listening to or watching advertisement. Television and radio ads are so commonly involved in a person’s life that the person regularly hears messages from the advertisement. To name a few, men are told to bulk up, drive better cars, and show power. Women are constantly told to be pretty; some ads may cause women to apply great effort to maintain beauty, such as by losing weight to achieve a standardized image of beauty.

 

Claim 3: Society unquestionably provides pressure for both men and women to live up to certain standards and ideals.  If a man or women decides to oppose these standards, society might identify him or her as different, weird, or strange. For example, if a woman adopts the manly characteristic of working out frequently, she might display an image that contradicts the typical female image of slim and pretty. Consequently, because she displays a “wrong” type of body image, she may receive disproval from others. However, this disproval should not discourage either men or women to follow his or her goals. If a woman wants to indulge in a manly activity, or vice versa, he or she should rightly be able to do so. For example, in the past, women were not allowed entry into the military. Now, as things have changed, a woman may enter the military if she desires to. Although most military activity is considered a man’s job, women should not be discouraged to counter the social norms and join the military if she wants to.

 

RA#3

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

Author: Jean Kilbourne

Date: 3 November 2012

Topic: Effect of advertisement on women

Exigence: Because of typical advertisement, women are mistreated and neglected.

Intended Audience: General Public

Purpose: To inform readers of the negative impacts of advertising on women.

Claim: Advertisement’s degrading display of women unjustly represents women in society.

 

Ethos: In her article, “‘Two Ways a Woman can Get hurt’: Advertising and Violence,” author Jean Kilbourne clarifies the impact that advertisement has on women. The article contains several images of provocative advertisement, most of which express sexual relations between men and women. Throughout most of the article, the author explains how this sexual advertisement affects popular culture. Jean Kilbourne claimed that, through regular advertising, popular culture influences a faulty relationship between men and women: “The popular culture…idealizes a template for relationships between men and women that is a recipe for diasaster…”(578). Thus, advertisement may ordinarily impact relationships, and correspondingly, the men and women in those relationships. Kilbourne proceeds to elaborate on advertisement’s influence on relationships: “Indeed the very worst kind of man for a woman to be in an intimate relationship with, often a truly dangerous man, is the one considered most sexy and desirable in the popular culture” (578). Kilbourne’s statement suggests that advertisement encourages faulty relationships between men and women.

 

Pathos: The author declares that advertisement mistreats women. Kilbourne noted, “Sex in advertising is pornographic because it dehumanizes and objectifies people, especially women…”(575). From Kilbourne’s words, because advertisement dehumanizes and objectifies people, sexual advertising may cause a woman to feel more like an object than a real human being. In everyday occurences, women may view advertising that exploits certain characterisitics, and because that advertisement comprises much of culture, women may feel they need to submit to the image displayed in advertisement. Consequently, women who identify themselves as not up to standard to the advertised image may feel embarrassed.

            Moreover, Jean Kilbourne illustrates how advertisement affects a woman’s basic security. Thourghout her article, Kilbourne exemplified several ways in which advertisement promotes a man’s sexual yet dangerous focus on women. Because potentially dangerous men are influenced to approach women with sexual intentions, Kilbourne stated that women must remain cautios in public settings: “We don’t list our ful names in the phne directory or on our mailboxes, we try not to be alone after dark, we carry our keys in our hands when we approach our cars, we always look in the back seat before we get in, we are wary of elevators and doorways and bushes, we carry pepper sprays, whistles, Mace” (588).Kilbourne’s statements reveals that, partly because of sexual advertisement, women may ordinarily have fear in commonplace occurences.

 

Logos: By displaying an excerpt from alcohol-related ad, Kilbourne demonstrated how advertisement affects society. Kilbourne noted, “A chilling newspaper ad for a bar in Georgetown features a closeup of a cocktail and the headline, ‘If your date won’t listen to reason, try a Velvet Hammer’” (579). This advertisement persuades men to seduce women through alcohol consumtion, which supports Kilbourne’s views on how women are unjustly treated from advertisement. Kilbourne then revealed another ad that aimed to mistreat women; Kilbourne said, “In 1997 a company called Senate distributed clothing with inside labels that included, in addition to the usual cleaning instuctions, the line ‘Destroy all girls,’ A Senate staffer explained that he thought it was ‘kind of cool’”(596). The advertisement’s literal declaration to hurt women may very well affect women in society.

RA#2

Title: “The Death of Macho”

Author: Reihan Salam

Date: 30 October 2012

Topic: Male and Female position in power

Exigence: Supreme male-domination in economic matters caused the great recession. The new, reconstructing economy focuses to rightfully instill more power for women.

Intended Audience: Society

Purpose: To inform public of faults produced by male-domination in economy, and to inform public of shift of power from men to women.

Claim: Because men are largely responsible for faults in the economy, they must ultimately submit to a rise in female power in the global economy and society.

Ethos: In his article “The Death of Macho”, author Reihan Salam described how the Great Recession will impact both gender’s role in the economy and society. From the recession’s catastrophic results, Salam claims that males, in particular, will suffer. According to Salam, men are failing to pursue educational knowledge: “Worse still, men are falling even further behind in acquiring the educational credentials necessary for success in the knowledge-based economies that will rule the post-recession world” (630). Although Salam does not provide concrete facts to support his view of men and their educational goals, his claim implies that men will struggle to adapt to the economy. Consequently, readers of “The Death of Macho” may limit their trust in men’s ability to succeed in the economy.

 Moreover, Salam expressed how the economy’s collapse may be blamed on the behavior of “macho,” which Salam defined as the underlying, aggressive characteristic that drives the male human being. According to Salam, because “macho” has aided in economic failure, women will gain power over men. Salam stated, “The great shift of power from males to females is likely to be dramatically accelerated by the economic crisis, as more people realize that the aggressive, risk-seeking behavior that has enabled men to entrench their power—the cult of macho—has now proven destructive and unsustainable in a globalized world” (630-1). Salam’s disapproving perspective of macho permeates throughout his article, which influences readers to find fault in men.

Furthermore, Salam argued that society intended for men to economically dominate women. For example, Salam stated that the construction industry aids in male domination of the economy: “These handsome construction wages allowed men to maintain an economic edge over women” (632). Also, Salam stated that in order for men to maintain power over women, men deliberately prevented women from entering the economy: “Insulating women from the market by keeping them in the home became a mark of status for men—a goal must fully realized in the postwar nuclear family” (632). Because construction wages make women inferior to men, and because men influence women to stay in a household, society seems to limit women from obtaining power in the economy.

 

Pathos: Salam explained that a woman’s ability to hold power was rarely recognized and often overlooked. Salam stated that because the male dominant power in the economy has caused failure, neglected women will finally have a chance to hold power. For instance, in politics, Iceland named Halla Tomasdottir, the world’s first openly lesbian leader, as their Prime Minister (630). In his article, Salam noted a quote from Tomasdottir that expresses her opinion on the male influence on the recession: “They got us into this situation—and they had a lot of fun doing it” (630). Tomasdittor’s statement implies that the men involved in the economic downturn lacked care for the struggles caused by the recession. Thus, Tomasdittor’s statement may influence readers to perceive men as mischievous and merciless.

 

Logos: In his article, Salam used insight from historian Stephanie Coontz to reveal the government’s efforts on promoting male power: “…According to historian Stephanie Coontz, the Great Depression and the New Deal reinforced traditional gender roles: women were promised economic security in exchange for the state’s entrenchment of male economic power”(632). Coontz’s view suggests that women were treated unfairly. Salam then used a quote from President Barack Obama to express the female’s growing position in the economy: “Women are just as likely to be the primary bread earner, if not more likely, than men are today” (632). By displaying a quote from President Barack Obama, Salam offers assurance that women will no longer be dismissed in the economy.

Personal Response: Salam demonstrated how men may have abused their power, but Salam provides a biased opinion on men. Through his description of “macho,” Salam implies aggression resides only with men, not in females. As mentioned earlier, Salam’s description of macho includes: “…the aggressive, risk-seeking behavior that has enabled men to entrench their power—the cult of macho—has now proven destructive and unsustainable in a globalized world” (630-1). Salam fails to mention that this same aggression can also exist in females, which may unjustly persuade readers that dominant female power is the correct and ultimate response to the recession.