Friday, March 3, 2017
Ethos Of Shot Up in the Sexual Revolution
Ethos of a piece is considered to be the credibility of the author and the words she or he are using to describe an experience. In the case of this poem, the ethos is incredibly strong as the story being told is from a primary source. The writer of this poem, Cynthia Huntington, actually went through the sixties as a part of the counterculture movement and her words represent how she felt during this era. Contrary to popular belief, although this was a time of sexual freedom, Huntington speaks about how sexual freedom wasn't true freedom for her. Gender politics play a role in that she feels used and that her value as a woman is lost. This juxtaposes the supposed sexual freedom because it shows that men can be open with all of their experiences but women are still used and the only difference with this "freedom" is that women can now say that they are promiscuous but they are still considered to be objects. What is the point of freedom if value is not ascribed to their liberty? The platform from which Huntington speaks leaves area for bias but she does entertain the notion of enjoying her new found "free love" like her friends only to abandon this idea by accepting how it makes her feel like an object instead of a person. As a result the ethos of her writing is strengthened and as readers we can immerse ourselves in her writing.
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Interesting facts or information about the accomplishments (or accomplishments) of the Sexual Revolution. I will just say that another way in which she used ethos was that she was a part of the counterculture movement, meaning she was a stakeholder. So that gives her some right to talk about the issue. In the poem, she showed she was practicing counterculture by using the kind of language that she used. Many of the words she say would be considered vulgar by society. In this case, the culture of society would be having societal norms to which you are supposed to stick to. One of those norms is not using sexual or vulgar language when directing some type of rhetoric to an audience. But Huntington breaks these norms by writing her poem the way she did, using sexually explicit language. That way she showed us that she IS counterculture.
ReplyDeleteI think Cristian's addition is important because it speaks to Huntington's authority on the issue.
ReplyDeletePersonal experience is the strongest form of ethos and therefore has a very strong impact on the audience. We tend to be affected more when we hear from someone who directly experienced hardship than when we hear from a secondary source.
ReplyDeleteIt definitely adds to her credibility as an artist to have personally experienced the counterculture movement. The audience members who have walked in her shoes will have more respect for her input because she is not writing from the outside looking in.
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