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The article Gender, Class, and Terrorism by Michael Kimmel creates a convincing argument that makes the audience think about the effect of uniform unchanging expectations towards men in a quickly developing society. These effects are those relating to not only terrorism, but also towards the general consequences of the emasculation of men, past and present. This complex argument is accomplished by Kimmel using logos and pathos to appeal to the audience, giving several examples, and using the paper’s structure to his advantage. Despite his success in appealing to the audience through the methods previously listed Kimmel fails to show his credibility by not citing direct sources, as well as using fallacies to back his argument, which may leave …show more content…
the audience skeptical about the authenticity of the information backing his entire argument. Kimmel uses many forms of support in this essay to not only prove his argument, but also to act as constraints to bring the audience together.
Among these forms of support is the use of examples and the persuasive appeal to pathos. One way Kimmel uses pathos is when he discusses the backgrounds of Timothy McVeigh, Adolf Hitler, and Mohammed Atta; three men who, according to Kimmel, have something other than widespread destruction in common, this something is a feeling of emasculation and enervation, “What unites Atta, McVeigh, and Hitler is not their repressed sexual orientation but gender - - their masculinity, their sense of masculine entitlement and their thwarted ambitions (Kimmel par. 25).” Kimmel uses these three men’s backgrounds to make them appear more personable to the audience, as well as to revise the audience’s stereotypical beliefs about terrorists, creating a feeling of empathy towards these three terrorists from the audience that may not have been previously present, “Looking at these two men through the lens of gender may shed some light on both the method and the madness of the tragedies they wrought (Kimmel par. 7).” This quote gives a direct statement from Kimmel himself as he tries to gain understanding from the audience towards the men he is writing about, showing how Kimmel is looking for the audience to perceive these men’s acts of terror in sequence with the circumstances of which they were derived. Kimmel continues to constrain the audience and …show more content…
support his argument by discussing white supremacists and the Taliban’s views of masculinity and its importance in their communities. Kimmel writes about both of these groups seeking out to essentially “remasculinize men and refeminize women”. Kimmel uses both examples from white supremacists and Taliban’s policies to prove this, from white supremacists he discusses their goal to make men “[…] control the fruits of their own labor[…]” and “[… ] band together in armed militias if anyone […] tries to take it away from them (Kimmel par. 13).”; and from the Taliban’s policies Kimmel states, “men were required to grow their beards […] since beards symbolically re-affirm biological differences between men and women[…] (Kimmel par. 20)” In doing this Kimmel allows for the audience to relate to and understand the frustrations put on young men like Mc Veigh and Atta, due to gender roles. Another way Kimmel creates a convincing argument is by his use of structure in this article. Kimmel includes elements of cause and effect, as well as compare and contrast to transition his support into logic and help the audience to understand his thought process, causing the audience to think about the issue of gender roles, the emasculation of men, and overall how both of these aspects lead to terrorism. Comparing and contrasting allows the audience to connect the dots between white supremacy groups and terrorist groups in the middle east, as well as all the similarities and differences in the backgrounds of the three terrorists in order to draw their own conclusions, “Virtually all were under 25, educated, lower middle class or middle class, downwardly mobile (Kimmel par. 15).” This quote gives an example of how Kimmel uses compare and contrast to bring his argument together, in this case Kimmel is comparing the characteristics of the terrorists involved in the attacks on September 11th to conclude that their frustrations with their gender and their failures are what caused them to commit the horrific act of September 11th. Essentially using the aspect of compare and contrast in this essay allows for the audience to re-evaluate their racial stereotypes related to terrorism, causing them to thing more objectively about the reasons as to why acts of violence occur from these groups and individuals based on their emasculation by society. Other than compare and contrast, Kimmel also uses cause and effect to support his thesis. Using cause and effect allows Kimmel to really show his though process, of how gender roles actually lead to terrorism, for example, Kimmel uses cause and effect to show how Atta’s failures in comparison to his sister’s successes lead to his downward spiral into his great dislike for women, which would greatly the way women in the middle east would be treated in the future. “Defeated, humiliated, emasculated, a disappointment to his father and a failed rival to his sisters […] he evinced a hysteria about women […] (Kimmel par. 30)” Cause and effect when used by Kimmel, as seen in this example, gives the reader reasons based off of background information to put two and two together and essentially ponder their thoughts about how terrorism is greatly influenced by the heavily weighted gender roles set upon men. Although Kimmel manages to convince the audience to think about the effects of gender roles in relation to terrorism by creating a great argument and creating enough pathos to get the audience thinking about gender roles and terrorism, he ultimately fails to prove his credibility through the use of fallacies and not citing direct sources for his evidence.
Kimmel uses quite a few fallacies in his argument, such as begging the question, guilt by association, and slippery slope. For example Kimmel uses guilt by association throughout this article in the same manner that he is using logic to prove his entire argument. Kimmel constantly compares the characteristics of individuals and uses these similarities to say that because they have all of these things in common, they must have the same reasoning for taking the same actions, which is in a way pairing people together just based on the fact that they are associated with one another in terms of background, which is an example of the fallacy “guilt by association”(Kimmel). The use of these fallacies would essentially damage the ability of the article to create a convincing argument, if the purpose were to strictly make the audience agree with his opinion. Kimmel’s credibility also “takes a hit” as he fails to properly state the origin of any of his proof in his article which once again would make the audience skeptical of his ethical standings and once again ultimately disprove his argument if it were for the sole purpose of
proving Kimmel’s thesis. Overall, Kimmel creates a convincing argument that persuades his readers to think objectively about gender roles in relation to terrorism and other global aspects through the use of various forms of support, proof, logic, as well as structure of the essay. However, Kimmel fails to create an ethical argument by using fallacies as well as not citing his sources, yet, despite this, he does not fail to reach the ultimate purpose of this argument about gender roles.
¬¬¬Though most American people claim to seek peace, the United States remains entwined with both love and hate for violence. Regardless of background or personal beliefs, the vast majority of Americans enjoy at least one activity that promotes violence whether it be professional fighting or simply playing gory video games. Everything is all well and good until this obsession with violence causes increased frequency of real world crimes. In the article, “Is American Nonviolence Possible” Todd May proposes a less standard, more ethical, fix to the problem at hand. The majority of the arguments brought up make an appeal to the pathos of the reader with a very philosophical overall tone.
The perspective of the population in Western Culture has been impacted by prejudicial attitudes that are then implemented into the younger population, creating a very high emphasis on male dominance as well as a lack of power in certain aspects for women. “Pigskin, Patriarchy, and Pain” by Don Sabo exemplifies the male patriarchy to be the primary source in Western Culture for implementing pain into the lives of young males as a means of attaining power and success . Sabo takes a look into the corruption that occurs from conforming to the values of a society that praises male superiority through his background of sports and it’s teaching of dominance over men and women. Aaron H. Devor of “Becoming Members of Society: Learning the Social Meanings
Realistically, when someone is more powerful, they have the ability to set the rules. Men have historically held power in society, which means that women did not have as much stance or freedoms as men have had in the past. For example, Canadian women did not have the right to vote until the year 1916. This factor has continued to trail into the present day, creating the ‘weak’ image towards women, overall forcing and pushing men to become the opposite of this factor. Thus, cultural ideals of masculinity rely on the ideas of femininity through patriarchy and gender binaries. The emphasis on characteristics of men are being exaggerated, as society is pressuring men with unattainable standards of masculinity such as being tough, muscular and buff. Men continue to conform to these characteristics, in the fear of being oppressed through exclusion, which only strengthens society’s standards even more. This leads to more societal pressures on men, thus leading men to experience more societal pressures in the fear of feeling excluded. These “systems of inclusion and exclusion are divisions or barriers that prevent people from joining and belonging.” (50). For example, if a man wears nail polish, they may be oppressed and excluded through facing ridicule and bullying, because wearing nail polish is considered “girly”, therefore this boy is rebelling against society’s socially
Women’s rights pioneer, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, in her speech, The Destructive Male, expresses her feelings about Women's suffrage in 1868, and brought to light the misconception that women are not equal to man and imply that men bring more destruction than restoration.
In the reading, Playing in the Gender Transgression Zone, McGuffey & Rich argue that the ways youth build their “hierarchy” in school, camps, etc. can explain the way ‘gendering’ in society’ happens and why. It discusses how boys are seen as the high status members of society. This is a result of the ideology of hegemonic masculinity. This says that there is a predominant way of doing gender relations that elevates the status and privileges of masculinity over femininity. This establishes a socially constructed level of male social power and explains why male dominance continues on past the middle school ages. Men still have high status in higher level of social organization, especially political/ governmental institutions.
(Chermak, 2006) The media is one of the leading causes of stereotypes, and what influences our beliefs today. When you think of a terrorist, you may think of either a middle-aged Muslim male or a middle-aged white male with some sort of mental or social disorder. This isn't always the case. A terrorist can be of any race, age, and social class.
Bush demonstrates that with the use of metaphors, personification, and also repetition. Using metaphor, he compares America to steel, saying that America is like steel, but not pliable. Portraying that whatever dangerous act comes to America, America will stay strong and not move. Personification is to explain the reasoning behind the terrorists’ operations and the motives behind this move. Bush gives feeling and visualization traits to the nation, consequently putting it in the nation’s point of view, highlighting what the nation felt and saw. Repetition is to bring America together and strengthen everyone. It is to show that this heartbreaking event did not just affect the victims, but it affects the entire country. The way Bush uses repetition to get the people of America together makes America stronger because the more a country is together, the more power and strength it will possess. As a final point, President Bush’s usage of these three rhetorical devices grabs the attention of the people and helps Bush express the type of tone he wants to get
In the Macho Paradox Katz explores the issue of violence against women, but emphasizes the importance of men taking this issue personally and understanding its relevance for themselves and the women in their lives. Katz creates a personal connection to violence against women for the male audience of his book by emphasizing the statistical likelihood of them each knowing a survivor of violence. Katz uses the idea of knowing a survivor to make the issue of violence both personally relatable and relevant for men, with the intention of using this relatability as a catalyst for action and as a means of creating pathways for men to understand their importance as allies in the fight against gendered violence.
Hunnicutt illustrated that the concept of patriarchy is a useful tool in the theory of feminism. She also made use the concept of patriarchy to show how it can be employed to explain violence against women in society. Hunnicutt’s article presents an alternative way to understand violence against women by employing patriarchy as a core theoretical concept. Hunnicutt believed that in the society, women are typically oppressed and men also have been historically dominant over them, and most times it results to violence against these women. Hunnicutt stated that the theories of violence against women mostly focus on male power but via situating that power within a patriarchal order. This article is important to the topic of feminism because for its theoretical background to help ground my
Each of the texts, although in different ways, suggest that inequality serves as a function of a male dominated social and cultural hier...
The samples being analyzed in this genre analysis all utilize the rhetorical devices known as ethos (credibility), pathos (emotion), topos (theme or convention), and logos (logic), which are used as persuasive contrivances. An analysis of the genre focused upon the social construct of masculinity reveals one major challenge facing society: the perpetuation of gender roles and the degrading effect it has on individuals. The purpose of this essay is to establish an accurate analysis of the genre of masculinity as well as three different samples from the genre and their utilization of rhetorical devices. This essay provides an analysis of the rhetorical situation of the masculinity genre taking into account and analyzing three examples of work from the
Eastern Promises challenges the view of hegemonic masculinity as a a static, unified concept. By analyzing the behaviors of members of the Russian mafia, vory y zakone ("thieves in law"), particularly of Kirill and Nikolai, this paper will illustrate how masculinities are constructed, performed and reaffirmed in the context of the Russian mafia vory y zakone. The paper will begin by describing the main tends of masculinities theory, proposing that vory y zakone are creating oppositional masculinity. Keeping this context in mind, it will be illustrated how men in vory y zakone are constructing and performing masculinity through degradation of women more specifically sexual and verbal abuse, through the use of violence and heteronormativity. Lastly, it will be illustrated how tattoos also serve as display of masculinity. Masculinities in the context of the Russian Mafia Masculinities theory stems from the social constructionist view of gender, which argues that gender is not determined by biological sex but is an on-going social practice (Gartner, 2012). Masculinity is never fully achieved, and needs to be constantly performed in order to be proved and reaffirmed (Gartner, 2012). Importantly, men perform their masculinity to other men not women. The ideal form of masculinity in Western society is hegemonic masculinity, which all men desire but not all men in society can achieve. It is the “prevailing, most idealized form of masculinity in historical setting and it is always constructed in relation to various subordinated masculinities, as well as in relation to women” (Connell 1987). Those who cannot accomplish the ideal, hegemonic masculinity, form other masculinities such as oppositional masculinity. The Russian mafia vory y...
He uses personal appeal, or the pathos method. One of the very first examples he uses is the personal statement about his good friend Gabby Giffords. She was a congresswoman who was shot in a mass shooting in Arizona. He states, “I was there with Gabby when she was still in the hospital, and we didn’t necessarily at that point think she was going to survive.” When he makes this statement, he is really trying to show how guns can affect anyone in the world at anytime. He is trying to make the point that he has dealt with this matter on a personal level to try and reach out to a certain area of his audience, which are people that have been affected personally by firearms. He tries to touch home to people to get them to listen. He brings up the event of Sandy Hook Elementary by stating “And that’s what we tried to change three years ago, after 26 Americans—Including 20 children, were
It is clear that gender roles and expectations become linked to broader cultural beliefs and prejudices. Some occur due to culture and religion, others due to the prejudices through the hetero-patriarchal normativity of gender roles and expectations. As evident in the documentaries “Gender Against Men”, “Gay Witch Hunt in Iraq”, “Life at Any Price” and “Guatemala: Killer’s Paradise,” if surely gender-based expectations and norms are explicitly defined and manifest into violence, war, murder and prejudice. This paper will decide whether or not the state plays a key role in all of the above cases.
This paper examines Patriarchal Terrorism, a form of domestic violence against women. In the United States has being more prevalent among different races, social level, marital status, and educational level. The current increase of domestic violence rates globally have led researchers to study the importance of the rates in the United States for better methods of policy implementation. The theory that explains the causes of domestic violence is the Conflict Theory developed by Karl Marx. Conflict Theory explains how domestic violence emerged due to the result of gender inequality in patriarchal societies. In this societies, men were superior to women in the ability to obtain education, employment, financial income, creating law, and vote. As