Evaluating Evidence

Do ads that use sex to sell their products degrade women?
“No” position

By Ted Sherman

www.helium.com/items/413500-do-ads-that-use-sex-to-sell-their-products-degrade-women

At first glance, this article does come across as being fairly convincing. It appeals to both the pathos and logos parts of persuasion. It uses strong language in attempt to convince its audience that whoever believes women are degraded by sexual advertisements is dumb and needs to “Get a life.” This tone, although presents his opinion very clearly, causes him to seem somewhat less credible and more like his simply ranting and raving. The author does not proceed to adequately back up his opinion with real sources but rather simply goes on with how he thinks others feel, or should feel, and basically just continues on with his own personal belief. The author does eventually add in some logic by bringing up a few interesting examples of women who are being degraded in foreign countries in extreme measures. This does add some credibility to his argument, but he still seems very over the top with his opinion and emotion so it is difficult to truly persuade the reader of anything.


Do ads that use sex to sell their products degrade women?
“Yes” position

By Victor Strange

www.helium.com/items/978294-do-ads-that-use-sex-to-sell-their-products-degrade-women

This article, on the other hand, presents itself as being much more credible. It starts off a little shaky in the beginning, however. The author clearly has a lot of sincere feelings on how our society is degraded and he presents these feelings a little strongly, which may cause some readers to be slightly taken aback, but it definitely appeals to the pathos portion of persuasion, however. Soon into his article he brings up a fair amount of statistics and interesting facts which do a good job of bringing down the emotional intensity and adding some logic into his argument. The author then continues with his opinion, but also throws in some humor which recaptures the reader’s attention and helps them identify with his ideas. In this way he again appeals to his audience’s emotions in order to help shape their opinion. This article also did a very nice job at expanding on what the reader expected to find. Instead of limiting his ideas to the degradation of women, he also explained how in his opinion all of society is lessened because of the amount of sexuality in the media today, and in turn, appealing to people’s ethos. He brings the ideas of pedophiles, government officials involved in sex scandals, and even abused children into his argument. This opens the reader’s mind to a new direction which they may not have associated with this matter previously.

My Primary Source

My Primary Source is the song "Samson" by Regina Spektor. It is a love song and also a song about the bible story of Samson. Here are the lyrics:



You are my sweetest downfall
I loved you first, I loved you first
Beneath the sheets of paper lies my truth
I have to go, I have to go
Your hair was long when we first met


Samson went back to bed
Not much hair left on his head
He ate a slice of wonder bread and went right back to bed
And history books forgot about us and the bible didn't mention us
The bible didn't mention us, not even once



You are my sweetest downfall
I loved you first , I loved you first
Beneath the stars came falling on our heads
But there just soft light, there just soft light
Your hair was long when we first met



Samson came to my bed
Told me that my hair was red
He told me i was beautiful and came into my bed
Oh I cut his hair myself one night
A pair of dull scissors and the yellow light
And he told me that I'd done alright
and kissed me till the morning light, the morning light
and he kissed me till the morning light



Samson came back to bed
not much hair left on his head
Ate a slice of wonderbread and went right back to bed
Oh, we couldn't bring the columns down
Yeah we couldn't destroy a single one
And history books forgot about us
And the bible didn't mention us, not even once

You are my sweetest downfall
I loved you first

Rhetorical Analysis of a Place

When deciding where I wanted to go for this assignment, I thought that the RPAC would be a good place to sit and observe, because there is always so much going on. I ended up in the Courtside Café with even more to watch than what I had anticipated, and I never even made it all the way into the RPAC!
I have to be honest, while doing this project I that I’m a bit of a pre-judger. When I entered into the Courtside Café I had the expectation of seeing tons of sweaty people grabbing a quick bite to refuel on some of the calories they had just lost. Although I was right, and I did see many people of this type, I also noticed that many of the Courtside Café’s customers did not seem to be there to work out at all. Probably a little less than half of the people in the room with me were just in their regular clothes having dinner and chatting with their friends. There were also a good number of people in the café who weren’t working out or eating dinner, but seemed to simply use the facility as a place to meet up with friends and then head someplace else. It is very obvious that the function of this facility is to give students the opportunity to work out and participate in physical activity (especially when you consider the RPAC is the Recreation and Physical Activity Center), but it is also very clear that this is not the only purpose of the building. As I watched people come and go visiting with their friends I decided there was no denying that this was a place where people felt comfortable to just chill out, hang with their friends, and relax; which when you think about it is slightly ironic—a work out center for relaxing? But that’s what it is!