Rhetorical Analysis Of What Makes A Woman

Why transgender shouldn’t define woman

The article “What Makes a Woman” focuses on how transgender should not define a woman because they have not lived their whole lives as a women, have not gone through the struggles, complications and life experiences that women go through. The author also brings in the idea of women and men having different brains to support her argument. The author, Elinor Burkett, effectively uses the three appeals of logos, ethos and pathos to get across her message. The first appeal is ethos that mentions other people’s opinions. The second is pathos by showing Burkett’s emotions. And finally, the third appeal is logos, which includes data statistics.

According to the article, transgender have changed the way we define women and it’s not fair. As Burkett says, “People who haven’t lived their whole lives as women, whether Ms. Jenner or Mr. Summers, shouldn’t get to define us. That’s something men have been doing for too much long.” In this article Kairos comes in as it was published right now in the present, when you hear more about transgender even more in popular celebrities such as in this article Bruce Jenner now known as Caitlyn Jenner.

The first appeal Burkett uses is ethos, quoting what other people such as a neuroscientist and actresses have said. For example, “Chelsea Manning hopped on Ms. Jenner’s gender train on Twitter, gushing, “I am so much more aware of my emotions; much more sensitive emotionally (and physically).” Chelsea Manning’s tone and sarcasm makes the reader understand how it relates to what Burkett is conveying.
In the point of men and women having different brains the author brings in what a neuroscientist from Britain’s Aston University said “You can’t pick up a brain and say ‘that’s a girl’s brain’ or ‘that’s a boy’s brain, the differences between male and female brains are caused by the “drip, drip, drip” of the gendered environment”.
Another way Burkett uses ethos is by life experiences. She says “They haven’t suffered through business meetings with men talking to their breasts or woken up after sex terrified they’d forgotten to take their birth control pills the day before. They haven’t had to cope with the onset of their periods in the middle of a crowded subway….” By using her own experiences as a woman it lets us understand how transgender may not have faced these uncomfortable situations women have to go through daily. The appeal of ethos is strongly supported by credibility and appeal to character by what some actresses have said and the authors own life experiences.
The second appeal is pathos, which is showed through Burkett’s emotions. In the article she includes “...the humiliation of discovering that their male work partners’ checks were far larger than theirs, or the fear of being too weak to ward off rapists.” This shows the reader Burkett is fierce and humiliated about this situation, her tone changes and she emphasizes more in the words she uses. She also adds “and as much as I recognize and endorse the right of men to throw off the mantle of maleness, they cannot stake their claim to dignity as transgender people by trampling on mine as a woman.” The way Burkett uses the appeal of pathos lets us know better her argument on how women shouldn’t be defined by transgender giving us on reasons why.
Finally, Burkett uses the appeal of logos by adding some data statistics.

Specifically, “In fact, it’s hard to believe that this hard-won loosening of gender constraints for women isn’t at least a partial explanation for why three times as many gender reassignment surgeries are performed on men.” In the author’s opinion, “brains are a good place to begin because one thing that science has learned about them is that they’re in fact shaped by experience, cultural and otherwise. The example Burkett uses is Ms. Jenner’s experiences she had when he was a men and how he wouldn’t have had those experiences if he was a women than. Burkett added “...he never had to figure out how to walk streets safely at night… Those are realities that shape women’s brains…transgender take a similar tack, ignore those

realities”.
Another way Burkett uses the appeal of logos is by the logic that the author herself is a woman. She’s a woman so she can have an opinion on what should define women. It wouldn’t be so logical for man to be arguing about their displeasure on how transgender has changed the way people define women.
The author connects all three appeals. In conclusion, all appeals come together to get across Burkett’s message about her displeasure about the transgender community trying to define what a woman is.