Hello and welcome to our gracious blog! We are five undergraduate students at the University of Maryland that have analyzed rhetorical elements of various photos depicting change throughout the feminist movement for our English 101 class. We hope our analyses of the different forms of rhetorical techniques in the context of two different eras of Feminism will provide our arguments and reasoning behind said techniques effectively for all to understand and resonate with. We felt that analyzing the feminism movements of the 1960s and today would help make our case best in revealing the various ways in which rhetoric plays a pivotal role in human life.
Both texts covered throughout the blog are pictures that show women protesting for their beliefs of equal rights for women. The pictures help to spread the idea further than just the communities where these protests took place. We started the analysis with key elements such as the kairos, pathos, and the major rhetorical arguments of each. We then transition to elements that are important, but do not have as much of an impact as the rest. These include visual elements, the audience, and more. We proved our major argument by connecting to our audience through our posts and by bringing in additional texts from other sources. This helped to show the true spectrum of protesters and supporters that are backing this issue in order to reach equality for all.
In a time when feminism is beginning its third wave, it seemed appropriate to us to analyze the changes that feminism has gone through in the past 50 years. Our modern protest photo displays men and women advocating against the social stigma that women are devalued for what they are wearing or that men are entitled to a woman’s body based on the way she is dressed. We decided to compare this movement with the feminism of the 1960’s, in which women strived to be considered equal under the law in a time when they were not. We want our readers to contemplate the differences in the goals and timing of second and third wave feminism.
The heart of any social movement is the emotion emanating from it. We breathe life in the heart of feminism by analyzing the ways in which appeals to emotion can elicit various reactions and actions from diverse ranges of audiences. In order to demonstrate our intent, we analyzed texts from two different periods of feminism (The Second-Wave and Third-Wave) in forms of various mediums to analytically provide our argumentation on the effects of pathos in furthering the feminist narrative. Whether it’s an emotionless woman in 1960s Cincinnati holding a sign demanding equal pay for women or a naked woman with a look of determination in a Slutwalk protest, they all have something in common. That commonality is the expression of passion. Both women from both eras have the fire burning in their hearts to push for the institution of systemic change, whether it is to put women in positions of power and equalize the workplace or to change the perception of women in society. Women from all walks of life, differing views, and backgrounds come together and unite under their emotions to push for needed change. One of this blog’s various purposes is to analyze these rhetorical mediums and evaluate their effectiveness through comparisons and sophisticated analysis of the power of emotion. Our intent is for our audiences to walk away with a grasp and acknowledgement of emotional repercussions that come from these movements of passion. These lessons can prove valuable to our target audiences in furthering their own enlightenment of society and our world.
The photos we analyzed appeal to ethos in the sense that they both depict ethical protests. The picture from the 1960’s shows a protest in Cincinnati, Ohio, where woman were fighting for equal compensation. During second wave feminism, women tended to shift towards more industrial jobs, and were getting paid less than men for doing the same jobs. The picture of the Washington DC Slutwalk shows the main goal of third wave feminism, which is more towards equal treatment. Women today are sexualized in our society, and some people are raised thinking that men are the dominant species, and that women should cater to them. This is completely wrong, and the Slutwalk represents women taking back what’s rightfully theirs, which is our body and the right to feel secure in it.
Both images encompass a fight for some type of women’s equality. In the 60’s protest the women are fighting for equal pay for equal work, a heated topic of the age. The image shows a woman holding a sign that says “Equal Positions with Equal Pay” which is informing the community of the wage gap in hope to change that. We’ve noticed that the movements have shifted from the equal opportunity concept into equal treatment. This is shown as the modern image presented is a candid picture taken at a Slut Walk in D.C. The Slut Walks are empowering women, their bodies, and the clothing they choose to wear. The major argument is that a women’s clothing does not give consent, regardless of how revealing it is. Both images are presenting fact/definition because they each represent issues that need to be changed. They also encourage action to be taken in order to make these changes.
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