Rhetorical Analysis Of What's Wrong With Gay Marriage

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What is wrong with gay marriage? That is the question writer Katha Pollit asks in her essay “What’s Wrong with Gay Marriage?”. The essay is clearly intended for people who are against gay marriage. The title alone shows that she does not understand why people think gay marriage is wrong. Pollitt’s audience must have different reasons for being against gay marriage. This is why she addresses the main reasons why people may think gay marriage is wrong. Pollitt talks about how people believe marriage is about procreation and tries to convince them they are wrong. Pollit says “As many have pointed out, the law permits marriage to the infertile.” She also talks about marriage being a way for women to domesticate men. Pollit says “although it overlooks …show more content…

Pollit then goes on to tell her audience that marriage is not as sacred as it used to be and can be easily dissolved. The audience may seem marriage as some holy sacred bond between a man and a women and Pollit tries to show them that is not the case. Pollit tells all the benefits marriage brings and shows how society rewards you for marriage and says that it is wrong to deny anybody of it. One of the major reasons the audience is against gay marriage is because it goes against their religion. Multiple times Pollit talks about how marriage is not about the church but about the government. She says “It’s not about what God blesses; it’s about what the government permits.” Pollit tries to get the idea of religion out of people’s minds and tries to say it doesn’t matter. Her essay ends with her saying “Gay marriage it’s not about sex, it’s about separation of church and state.” The audience must really believe that gay marriage is wrong because of their religion because her closing argument is about how it should be up to the state not the church. She may have intended this essay for a hostile audience but it does not seem like something they would

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