Central Essay – “Women’s Brains” – Stephen Jay Gould
6. The point that paragraph 9 through 12 posed was that brain size is not affected by gender, which does not allow to measure male superiority. Gould points out that brain size is affected by body build, height, and weight. Gould states how in Broca’s research, his subjects weren’t equal in age, height and body size, which are all factors that affect brain size. Also the women he used were elderly and a lot smaller than average men. Gould talks about how the older women were more likely to have degenerative diseases, which can also cause their brain mass to decrease.
7. Gould’s purpose in extending his conclusions to other groups was to say that people aren’t just being discriminated against their gender, but other minority groups as well. Gould makes a close relation of the women, blacks, and the poor. Broca is showing that his research supports prevailing public thought.
10. Gould appeals to pathos by his statements that show that the conclusions made by scientists such as Broca and Le Bon are hurtful and disrespectful to those that they criticize, such as the example of comparing women to apes. Gould’s appeal to pathos adds to his argument by making the people who read his work realize that he’s a actually person that can relate and understand why the things other scientist say are so hurtful; this makes his argument more believable and rather appealing to the reader.
Classic Essay – “Professions For Women” – Virginia Wolfe
1. In the opening paragraph Woolf presents herself as a woman who is following the only path that allows her to be free in some aspects. She discusses that as a woman in a literature profession it is difficult to say what type of professional experiences she has because she is able to write because paper is cheap and her predecessors have made it possible for her to be able to have this profession. However, as a women she still has many obstacles to face.
3. The effect of the personal anecdote in paragraph 2 is to explain Woolf’s personal background with writing. It shows the reader how Woolf got into writing, and eventually made a career of it. This mainly appeals to pathos, appealing to emotion rather than logic. She discusses her emotions and thoughts as a child, which is pathos. This is especially effective to Woolf’s audience, since a lot of her readers are most likely female writers themselves, so they can relate to what she is saying.
4. Throughout Woolf’s discussion of the Angel in the House, she talks about how the angel is an ideal for women. The angel is the part of her conscience that is telling her to stay at home and be the stereotypical woman. Woolf chooses to use an angel to describe her burdens, because being pure as an angel is what is going to hold her back. The angel comes into her room and tells Woolf that she should not be a writer, and that she is a woman, and should be taking care of a husband and children instead.
8. In paragraph 5, when Woolf refers to the novelist as “he”, instead of “she” it left an emphasis that even though she is a woman she is equal to a man and that she does not lack anything. No, I do not think that she should have used “she” because is would not have given the same effect on the reader as does the usage of “he.
11. Woolf embellishes her metaphor by asking questions about how you are going to furnish the room, with whom are you going to share it with and on what conditions, Woolf posing these questions shows the readers that women have a choice and its their choice what they do, and no one can take these choices away.
12. Woolf’s tone throughout the entire piece, shifted. She started her piece out with a very light-hearted tone and then towards the middle had a urgent or serious tone. In the end, Woolf had an inspirational and a pleading tone as she shows the audience that women have a choice, which no one can take away.
“The Speech of Miss Polly Baker” – Benjamin Franklin
5. The effect of the rhetorical questions is that it creates a emotional relationship with his audience, by sharing the hardships the women face. “What must poor young Women do…”
9. The diction and syntax establish Polly as a humble, obedient woman by showing she is polite and respectful when, Franklin, includes the apology, “Forgive me, gentlemen” when talking about the legal system. Franklin establishes Polly Baker as a obedient woman by including in the first paragraph, “This may have been agreeable to the laws, and I don’t dispute it.
11. By writing in the voice of a woman, Franklin achieves appealing to pathos and creating a more relatable connection with his audience and it showed his audience that he is able to talk about how women are being treated more unfairly.
“Letters” – John and Abigail Adams
3. Abigail Adams makes these statements to include the women and makes it not sound accusatory by politely starting with “I desire you would”. Abigail Adams was in a way reminding him of these statements and rather already expected him to comply.
4. Yes he is dismissing her and the way he worded the statement he had was in a way rude and disrespectful. John Adams totally brushes her off without a second glance and does not give his wife’s request much thought.
6. The overall tone of Abigail’s letters was calm but concerned. She was the usual concerned wife, who was making sure everything was okay with her husband and she also filled him in about the situation with their home. John’s letters’ tone was more criticizing and more serious. John Adams kept criticizing his wife about everything she mentioned and turned down all her ideas that she mentioned to him. In Abigail’s letters an example of the intimacy was when she was complaining about her husband’s short letters.
“I Want a Wife” – Judy Brady
2. The effect of repeating the clause, “I want a wife”, emphasizes the point that Brady wants a wife, who would take care of herself and the children. Brady wanted to show that a wife does a lot of different things and has a lot of responsibility on them. Brady uses the pronoun my when referring to her children, which shows that they are her kids.
4. The progression of the paragraphs was least to most. Brady listed more simpler and concrete things/activities at the beginning and towards the end she starts to talk about more abstract and more pertaining to herself.
7. The feminist movement has still remained popular because women in our world still are not equal to their counterpart, men.
Women still are not being treated equal to men in the workforce and there are stereotypes that people put on women about being housewives and taking care of the house and children.
“Barbie Doll” – Marge Piercy
1. Some of the stereotypes that Piercy draws on in this poem is that obsession with women that their bodies need to appear skinny and their behaviors. Piercy shows in her poem that the obsession girlchild has with her body was one of biggest factors in the suicide. Piercy also describes how girlchild was told to “play coy” and how there is a social pressure of behaving “ladylike”. Girlchild was told to act as other ladies would act. The term girlchild is an appropriate term because it defined both gender and age. The term shows the naivety and the pressures and assumptions that are made of a girl, who is growing up and is expected to be “ladylike”.
2. Piercy uses images of things the girlchild grew up with, for example she got “lipstick the color of cherry candy” and “dolls that did pee-pee and miniature GE stoves and irons”. Piercy uses the colors cherry red, pink, and white to depict the girlchild because those are colors depict that feminism and the colors that girls typically favor and use for makeup and colors for clothes.
3. The speaker of the poem is Marge Piercy, in a third-person perspective, who relates to the story of the girlchild.
4. The girl did not want to fall under the stereotypes that were put on her as being a girl. She wanted to be herself and not worry about what others thought about her.
5. The speaker entwines other commentaries by having the poem in third-person. Piercy also includes that “Everyone saw a fat nose on thick legs”.
6. The tone of the poem is morbid and sarcastic. The lines that helped me understand the tone was “in the casket..” and “the magic of puberty…”
“Marlboro Man” – Leonard McCombe
1. In the photo the man was dressed as a cowboy, which gives the idea that the man is strong and courageous. The photo focused on the face, rather than the entire body, because it gave his face more emphasis so his emotions were more shown. The point of this ad was to show that the cigarette helps him get the edge off.
2. The man in the man is gazing off in the distance to show that he was thinking about something and keeping his emotions in and not letting them show, such as stress or tiredness.
3. The photo shows the stereotypes of a cowboy, with denim jackets, sun hats with large brims (cowboy hats), and handkerchiefs.
Another stereotypes of cowboys that was shown was that cowboys are very manly and usually associated with tobacco and/or smoking.
4. This photo caught the eye of Leo Burnett because the cigarettes were associated with women. The belief was that the Marlboro cigarettes were not strong enough, if they were being smoked by women. Leo believed that if in the ad a manly cowboy, it would push more men to smoke Marlboro cigarettes, which eventually happened.
“Being a Man” – Paul Theroux
1. He offers such strong images to persuade the reader into thinking the same way he does, when he refers to marijuana or sports it’s something that catches the attention of the reader and makes then want to keep reading. He doesn’t believe that you have to prove your masculinity to be a man.
2. I do agree the a certain extent with the author on his argument. I agree with him on men act this way because society has made them believe this is what life is all about.
3. Theroux prepare his readers for the turn the essay takes in paragraph 12 by starting off the passage with negativity toward Americas “model man,” and how you must fit that mold or being a man is not rewarding. That gets the reader hooked. Then, Theroux brings the occupation of being a writer into the passage, stating that “being a writer was incompatible with being a man.” Coming into paragraph 12, he states how men must prove their manliness in order to be deemed manly. But just like John Irving, once America sees that you are indeed manly, yet are a writer, society becomes more forgiving. They do not force you to be the model and in result, he becomes somewhat honored, not ashamed to be a man.
4. Theroux’s point about men’s fashion, is somewhat outdated in the sense that men’s fashion has become more popularized and more important because that are beginning to care a lot more about their image. Points that are up to date like dress codes, males being pressured into joining sports, and cheating in college sports.
“About Men” – Gretel Ehrlich
1. She is trying to get her audience to look at cowboys from a different perspective other than stereotypes that are given to them. She also shows her strong appreciation and love for Wyoming and cowboys.
4. Many people see a cowboy as a more reserved person and Ehrlich stated in the essay that “they don’t know how to bring there tenderness into the house and lack the vocabulary to express the complexity of what they feel”, saying that they do care a lot for their wives just that they don’t know how to show and express it as well as other men.
5. I believe this statement helps prove her point that cowboys are human. They just aren’t ‘strong and silent’ or ‘a rugged individualist’, that they have feelings, and hearts too, just like women. Men and women can equally get hurt in a relationship, images just create the false idea that women always get hurt the worst.
“Putting Down the Gun” – Rebecca Walker
1. Walker focusing on her son is an effective strategy in reaching her audience, while making her thesis because it shows her thesis that her son’s personality should not changed because he does not fit in with the social norms of guys and girls. Quantitative evidence would weaken the introduction because it should be about her purpose and connecting her audience to her views not about the statistical data of her views.
4. Walker means by “the cultural imperative”, that in order for her son to fit in and be successful he must conform to the social norms of society.
“Why Johnny Won’t Read” – Mark Bauerlain and Sandra Stotsky
2. I do agree with Bauerlein and Stotsky’s analysis if the literary preferences of girls and boys because myself being a girl, I do enjoy reading books about fantasy and personal relationships, because I love creating a new world to imagine myself in it.
“Mind Over Muscle” – David Brooks
2. The effect of using the standard fairy tale opening is to indicate that in the past it was like that but now times have changed. In the past it was a man’s world and now it is slowing changing into a woman’s world because women are slowly doing a lot better than men. Over time women have become better students and have outperformed boys in education because women are more motivated than men.
3. I do agree with Brook’s cause and effect analysis that it is becoming a woman’s world because women are taking over because in the article it show that women are getting higher grades in all subjects, doing better than the boys, more likely to take AP courses and the highest level of courses, have much higher reading and writing scores, and will likely be holding more leadership jobs than men currently.
4. I do agree that in the near future “women will be holding more and more leadership jobs” in the near future because we have dominated the education aspect so far, however we are still not quite there to be taking over more leadership jobs because it is slowly happening. However, it is hard to have more leadership jobs because they are still giving those jobs to men but men are also not as mature at this young age which is why women have done better than men in the education aspect. Women in the near future “will have a harder and harder time finding marriageable men with comparable education levels” because women are exceeding the standards and are waiting longer to get married because their motivation is to get an education not to get married just yet. A lot of them also do have want to get married.