In September of 1979, Audre Lorde, poet, spoke about the impossibility of dismantling the patriarchy through oppressive means. The black feminist woman, Lorde, who has cancer at the point of this speech, uses ethos, pathos, and logos in order to guilt the audience into making a change of how black feminists are represented. Ethos is the building of the author's credibility in order to become more persuasive because people tend to believe people who they deem likable or respectable. “I agreed to take part in a New York University Institute for the Humanities conference a year ago, with the understanding that I would be commenting upon papers dealing with the role of difference within the lives of American women: difference of race, sexuality, class, and age. The absence of these considerations weakens any feminist discussion of the personal and the political.” (Lorde 1979) Off the bat Lorde is building her credibility by showing her vocabulary and her ability to convey her thoughts. In this specific quote she uses a certain diction that one would typically use if one were dignified. In the last sentence, “The absence of these considerations weakens any feminist discussion of the personal and the political.”(Lorde 1979) Her use of this sentence convinces …show more content…
She exhibits pathos in this quote by saying, “The absence of any consideration of lesbian consciousness or the consciousness of Third World women leaves a serious gap within this conference and within the papers presented here.”(Lorde 1979) In this quote she does two different things. One she asserts the claim that the thoughts of lesbians and women are under considered. The second thing she does is that she addresses the audience directly claiming that the conference has a considerable gap in said understanding. Both of these tactics apply to pathos and appealing to the audience's
Without brave women activists like these, awareness of racial and sexual identities may not have the powerful presence it does today. The Collective’s Statement served as a fervent mission to demolishing all oppressive practices and helped to forge movements within our current society. Today’s
For example, the author might provide statistics or cite factual information. Pathos appeals to people’s emotions. This is the easiest and most used way of persuasion. It is simple and effective to play on people’s emotions, which is why politicians also use pathos. During the 2016 presidential election, all of the candidates use all modes of persuasion in their social media.
To persuade readers authors use pathos by creating an emotional connection essentially
Divisions within feminism through differences are demobilizing the necessary movement required to create change. In Audre Lorde’s piece, “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House”, Lorde uses her experience at NYU’s Humanities conference to address how racism and homophobia are present in feminism. Furthermore, she believes not all women of a particular identity share the same experiences, so to change the patriarchy, feminists must work together and use their differences as a uniting factor rather than something to categorize and separate women. Through the reference to metaphor- the master house and the master’s tools- and the use of pathos, Lorde ensures to stress that differences between people need to be used as empowerment
Not approaching the traditional look on feminism, but looking at the internal approach of gender and races roles, she crafts an argument to explore pleasure rather than solely pain. In the first chapter of this work, Archives of Pain she utilizes seminal works of Black Feminist to collectively analyze how traditional Black feminist theory sees the dominant representation of Black women. Through the lens of bell hooks, Patricia Hill Collins, Janell Hobson, Cox, Carla Williams, and several others Nash presents the common argument amongst these Black Feminist writers is that visually the dominant representation inflicts violence of the Black female body. With a background in sociology, Nash breaks down this chapter in four sections and explains representation as pedagogy, as temporal practice, as metonymy, and as a site for recovery.
Lorde's legacy continues to inspire activists and artists today, as she remains a powerful voice for social justice and equality. Lorde explains why poetry is a necessity to women and what being a woman truly means, especially as a black woman herself. She claims that finding your voice is a means of understanding oneself and reinvigorating old ideas in an emotion-rich light. Audre Lorde's points that women must recognize the importance of
She subtly interjects a commentary on the absence of sufficient historical research concerning the role women played in shaping our society, past and
In the 1980’s black women are faced with a lot pressure in society, Because women of color are both women and racial minorities, they face more pressure in which lower economic opportunities due to their race and their gender. This pressure is reflected both in the jobs available to them and in their lower pay. Also because they are women of color they are likely to be the giver of the house and also within the families. Through the use of anecdotes,rhetorical questions, anaphora, ethos and metaphors, "In The Uses of Anger: Women Responding to Racism, Audre Lorde argues that women of color need to respond to racism with anger spurred from their fear and that not a bad thing depends on how anger is portrayed.
For example, Mr.Gilmer uses Pathos when making Mayella explain what happened on the supposed day Tom abused and took advantage of her, the reasoning is that in the book it says “Mayella stared at him and burst into tears. She cover her mouth with her hands and sobbed. ”lee241 When this scene happened Mr.Gilmer was questioning Mayella. This showed a negative holistically in the argument; Pathos was strengthened because of the reason it appealed the audience emotion making them feel bad for her, this helped the argument because the audience felt emotion when Mayella was crying this might cause an unbiased audience to feel and think that Tom could possibly be guilty. Also, Mr.Gilmer used Ethos appealing to the audiences good morals for this reason
Pathos helps him because the audience may now relate to and feel bad for
Octavia Butler is an Afrofuturist, science fiction author who writes many dystopian stories that allude to questions about gender, social structures, and an individual’s ability to control her body and sexuality. When people think of speculative and science fiction they tend to think of nerdy white men writing stories about space and light sabers, but Octavia Butler challenges this stereotype herself by being one of the few African American women in this genre. In Octavia Butler’s speculative fiction short story “Speech Sounds” there is a reversal of gender roles and a strong idea of feminism that is portrayed through the main character Rye. There is also the use of simile and metaphor to help point out flaws in the social structure of the story and the world of the reader.
Her diverse identity enables her to be more vulnerable for criticism. Lorde is aware she is a target for condemnation and is able to recognize prejudice acts. Her mindfulness gives her the ability to argue against the judgment she endures in her writings. She explains, “Difference must not be merely tolerated, but seen as a fund of necessary polarities between which out creativity can spark like a dialect. (Lorde, 199).
In her essay "Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference," Lorde argues that the dominant culture constructs a mythical norm of what is considered "normal" or "acceptable," and that this norm is based on the experiences and values of white, heterosexual, middle-class men. This norm is then used to marginalize and oppress those who do not fit this ideal, including women, people of color, and LGBTQ+ individuals. Feminist geographers have applied Lorde's concept of the mythical norm to their work, using it to analyze how dominant cultural norms shape our experiences of space and place. For example, feminist geographers might explore how urban planning decisions are made based on the needs and desires of the mythical norm while ignoring the needs of marginalized groups.
At this point she is giving into the idea of women being taken from their families and given specific roles in a controlled environment; the idea of women being classified by the fertility of their womb or the status of their husband. Controversially, Offred also
However, Lorde firmly disagrees with this ‘silent’ attitude and throughout her life she spoke out and refused to stay silent, therefore Maureen Mahoney claims that; “The strength and resistance of Lorde’s own adult voice was no doubt fed by these paradoxes of power and powerlessness, experienced acutely and personally, in a delicately negotiated balance between words and silence” (621). It could be argued that Audre Lorde learned how to find her voice from her sister Helen; “I had finally found out what my sisters did at home at night […], they told each other stories” and “I thought that the very idea of telling stories and not getting whipped for telling untrue was the most marvellous thing I could think of” (Lorde 46). Additionally, Helen is the first out of three women to whom Zami: A New Spelling of My Name is dedicated, and Barbara DiBernard states that; “Lorde’s identity as Zami, a black lesbian poet, is formed through her relationships with other women” (199). Another woman important for breaking Lorde’s silence is Gennie, their connection is crucial in sustaining Lorde as a female writer; “Gennie’s suicide affected Lorde profoundly and has been a major impetus for much of her work” (DiBernard 200). First of all, a poem for Gennie is encountered in Zami: A New Spelling of My Name which Lorde wrote after her suicide.