Rhetorical Analysis of Turning Boys into Girls
A rhetorical analysis of the article reveals the basic truth behind Mens Health magazine and the various advertisements directed at improving mens appearance its all about marketers greed capitalizing on mens vanity, fear and insecurity yet paradoxically, it is, according to the author herself, something that brings about gender equity and that the entire business of turning boys into girls is definitely the long-awaited feministic solution to gender equality.
Michelle Cottle tried to achieve her purpose by using a variety of rhetorical strategies that include figures of speech particularly hyperbole, allusion, pun and persuasive words, to mention a few. However, I have noticed that the whole article is peppered with Cottles sarcastic personal comments that created a sort of bittersweet humor that makes readers laugh derisively at the particular group of people that Cottle seems to consider inferior men.
Rhetorical Strategies
Michelle Cottle employed several rhetorical strategies in order to get her purpose through. This paradox of mens magazines trying to prey on mens fears and insecurities and the supposed cultural advantage that women get from such manipulation is perfectly delivered by Cottle through, first of all, her creative and sarcastic use of humor.
Sarcastic Humor. Sarcastic humor is found in the following lines Instead of battling to get society fixated in something besides our breast size, we should have been fighting spandex with spandex (Turning Boys into Girls). She also says that with more and more men buying these magazines, it is not impossible that future TV commercials would feature men whining about having inherited their mothers thighs and Cottle sarcastically calls it progress.
She also has numerous side comments enclosed in parentheses all over the article and one of the most humorous of which refers to the April issue of Mens Health where the reader is recommended to commemorate Buddhas birthday by dining in a Japanese restaurant. Cottle goes like Why readers should go Japanese in honor of the most famous religious leader in Indias history remains unclear (Turning Boys into Girls). Then she mentions one article trying to urge men to drop a few pounds so that the next time you throw a sideline tantrum, at least people wont say, look at that the crazy fat man (Turning Boys into Girls).
Aside from these, let us take a closer look at how Cottle reacted sarcastically to a line quoted from Forbes speaking in behalf of all men Plastic surgery is more of a cosmetic thing for women. They have a thing about aging. For men its an investment that pays a pretty good dividend. Whatever you say, guys (Turning Boys into Girls).
Personally, I can imagine Cottle herself as a stage comedienne saying these lines in front of a twenty something and middle-aged audience and eliciting bursts of hilarious laughter from them every time she would mention the sarcastic parts.
Statistical Information. Another very effective strategy Cottle employed is the unsparing use of statistical data in order to reinforce her claims. From her claims that 20 percent of American men who get manicures to 690,000 men who had cosmetic procedures in 1996 alone to the 510 percent growth of Mens Health advertising since 1991 (Turning Boys into Girls), Cottle has effectively led the readers to believe her claims without even trying to think about how these figures statistically correlate with her arguments or even whether they are from reliable sources or not.
Personally I think that due to the overwhelmingly huge figures, the readers are apt to accept them as true lest their investigation into the reliability of these statistics would just interfere with the emotional momentum that Cottles article has already gotten them into.
Authoritative Opinion. The mention of the opinions of seemingly qualified sources like Forbes and the grooming editor of Mens Journal has also been used by Cottle in order to intensify the air of authority she is trying to show when presenting her claims.
Personally I believe the reader may readily accept these as true for there could be no other way to confirm its validity except to have the desire to doubt Cottles words herself. I am sure the reader would not be able to see any clear reason for doing so lest he loses track of the pace of the article. Therefore all attempts to confirm the validity of such statements would prove insignificant or futile from a normal human perspective.
Figures of Speech. Figures of speech have also been generously used by Cottle.
Hyperboles are present, especially in the first part of the article, in phrases such as dewy-eyed pre-teen waifs and men with glutes flexed so tightly you could bounce a check on them (Turning Boys into Girls). Personally I think these hyperboles are also humorous and impressive that is, they create an indelible impression on the readers about what these mens magazines are all about. Cottle has built a very strong description of these magazines a technique which she used in order to ensure that her subsequent criticisms of them will also be as equally vivid. I think Cottle understands the idea that the best way to criticize your ugly friend is just simply to describe his face in detail.
Allusions to famous personalities like Kate Moss, Jack Kennedy and Sharon Stone have also been used by Cottle in order to explain what men and womens ideal standards of perfection are despite general claims of inner beauty.
An apostrophe (the figure of speech, not the punctuation mark) is also used when Cottle mentioned the line Vanity, Thy Name is Man (Turning Boys into Girls).
The last of the figures of speech cleverly employed by the author is pun, especially when she mentions Better nutrition is not the primary issue. Better butt is and Tons of useful stuff or Tons of expensive stuff (Turning Boys into Girls).
Emotional Words and Phrases. Cottles choice of emotional words and phrases is also efficient and powerfully persuasive in terms of conveying her ideas and purpose. She uses words and phrases like insane, narcissistic, sexual neuroses, and winner.
Rapport. Another technique employed by Cottle include is establishing rapport with the reader by using the first person point of view such as in Dont you see ladies Weve been going about this equality business all wrong and by saying that Everyone wants to be considered attractive and desirable (Turning Boys into Girls).
I think that using statements like these will make the reader closer to the author and therefore more vulnerable to his or her persuasion. I think that the best thing to do when one is writing an article or essay which is full of the authors biased opinion is to occasionally make the reader agree with a few points until he or she agrees with everything else in the article. It is clear that Michelle Cottle is an expert at this.
Weakness of the Presentation of the Purpose
Despite the effective use of rhetorical strategies that Cottle used to deliver the purpose of the article, I believe she has committed one flaw in the presentation of her purpose.
I believe it is obvious that there is a lack of clarity on where her opinions lie when it comes to mens magazines in general and Mens Health in particular. Is she against it as what she mentions in the first part of the article that the efforts of mens magazines in turning boys into girls will result in favor of women in such a way that the burden of vanity and self-loathing will be shared by all Or is Cottle against mens magazines especially when she said that Mens Health provides the ideal meeting place for mens insecurities and marketers greed (Turning Boys into Girls).
The less critical reader, I believe, will think that Cottle is here to attack mens magazines in cold blood while the more critical reader would see the ultimate point of Michelle Cottles Turning Boys into Girls that this woman is lashing out at what she considers to be a seemingly puny way of men in living out their culture and for which she directly cricitizes Mens Health and mens magazines symbols of men and masculinity.
The point is not the magazines but the inferiority of men in general, the ridiculousness of their ideas, and the weakness of their wills as opposed to the natural-born inclination of the female species to be all of the above, thereby making men appear as the copycats of women.
I think the true purpose of Cottles article is gender equity, which she mentions only sparingly at the beginning and at the end of the article. I think she believes that the whole business of turning boys into girls is ridiculous, not because boys are supposed to be boys but because boys are not supposed nor do they have any rights to be girls which she, in her article, obviously considers to be the stronger sex.
The problem is that, due to the unclear and seemingly disorganized flow of Cottles ideas, the less critical reader will not be able to spot her main purpose at first sight and will just dismiss the article as a simple tirade against mens magazines. And if it were just a simple tirade against mens magazines preying on men, then why a female author to defend the male species
CONCLUSION
From analyzing Turning Boys into Girls and from a careful and detailed examination of the authors points of view, I have personally found two things Firstly, the author clearly reveals the naked truth about the insidious strategy behind mens magazines, but secondly and after a more critical evaluation of the article, she is not doing this exposition of the truth in order to spare the men by simply dissuading them from following advice from mens magazines she is doing all these to reinforce her claims on the weakness of their wills and the lousiness of their ideas and belief systems. Above all this, she thinks this is, for all women, not only vindication but sweet revenge.
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