Rhetorical Analysis: Rough Draft

The article "It Ain't Easy being Bisexual on TV" by Amy Zimmerman uses effective methods of both ethos and pathos. Through her use of phrases such as " in a perfect world", or "manipulative psychopath" she stirs the feelings of injustice in lesbians, gays, and bisexuals easily. In doing so, She effectively ignores the anti- gay or bisexual audience, the exact audience she's trying to convince of her position.

In this analysis, I will be examining chapter three, “Is it Pink? Is it Blue?” of Robert N. Minor’s book, Scared Straight: Why It 's So Hard to Accept Gay People and Why It 's So Hard to Be Human. Minor is a Professor of Religious Studies at University of Kansas, and often focuses his writing toward gay rights and gender roles in society. This particular book is a cultural critique of the United States’ gender roles and homophobia. Minor’s arguments leave a weak impression and leave readers with a sense of confusion. Minor ineffectively uses rhetoric in his arguments to establish purpose, inform his audience, use effective language, or to persuade his audience to take action.

Multiple studies have examined how members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) community are represented in media such as television and movies. Many of these studies focused on a particular time period, type of media, or area of representation (Denzer-King, 2016; Fejes & Petrich, 1993; Keegan, 2016; Lugowski, 1999; Peters, 2011; Raley & Lucas, 2006; Shugart, 2003). Few seem to provide an evaluation of the portrayal of LGBTQ characters across different mediums and networks in the modern era of media history (GLAAD, 2017). This portrayal has significant effects on how LGBTQ people are perceived by the public,

The authors of this book are Amanda K. Baumle and D’Lane R. Compton. Amanda K. Baumle is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Houston. She has written additional books that showcase the lives of LGBT citizens. D’Lane R. Compton is also an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of New Orleans. Baumle and Compton are also co-authors of Same-Sex Partners: The Demography of Sexual Orientation.

Growing up I remember being confused about the most mundane, normal obstacles life threw at me. I would try to hang out with some people at school and be immediately rejected because I wasn’t their ideal person to be around. Maybe it was the camouflage cargo shorts or maybe even the crocs, but at the time I was just so utterly confused on why those kids thought I didn’t meet their expectations. The confusion in my life doesn’t just pertain to myself, everyone has experienced confusion, some more often than others. The reason we experience so much confusion is because of the societal social norms that put everyone in a box, and usually not in a box they would like to be put in. Another reason for confusion are the way people are presented in media. In 2017, there is a movie coming out called Tomboy, A Revengers Tale. Starring Michelle Rodriguez as a male hitman turned female after a forced sex-change operation. Just typing out the premise of this film makes me want to scream. How can someone write this? How could someone okay this story? How is this movie coming to theaters in less than a year? These are just a few of the questions I have bubbling up inside me. This movie may seem “innovative,” but what this movie is really doing, is giving a negative stigma to the LGBTQIA community. Young transsexuals and intersex girls and boys will see this movie and think of themselves as some horrible medical experiment, which they simply are not. In this article, we will be covering how

The 1990s saw surge of gay characters in both television and movies. From Ellen Degeneres and her character Ellen Morgan coming out under much scrutiny on the TV show ‘Ellen,' to Julia Roberts and Rupert Everett comedically playing off each other in the motion picture ‘My Best Friend's Wedding.' Sure, gays and lesbians have been around forever, especially in Hollywood. But never has there been a time to be more out. With the popularity of shows like Will and Grace, which feature leading gay characters, as well as Dawson's Creek and it's supporting character of teenager Jack McPhee, we are slowly seeing gay and lesbian characters creeping into the mainstream media.

Homosexuality is often policed through representation in the media. Despite attaining legal recognition, social constructs remain reinforced by social institutions of the arts, health and education. The representation of homosexual couples in the media often reflects stereotypical, dramatized versions of particular groups. Arguably, this tactic is employed to increase the digestibility of homosexuality with mainstream heteronormative constructs. The NSW Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages v Norrie [2014] HCA 11

In media, queer men and women are almost always portrayed in stereotypical roles, and bisexuality is almost always expressed as a phase or not real. These ideas affect how others view queer identities and how queer people view their own identity, and the social norms around them. Men are commonly described as “feminine” whilst women are portrayed as “masculine” (Tara Sarper, 2013). How did these widespread ideas come to exist and how do they continue to affect members of the community? These stereotypes can be harmful as they build a picture of what it means to be a certain sexuality, as well as the heteronormativity behind the stereotype.

Bisexual individuals are quite separated from the LGBT community due to invisibility and lack of acceptance, which causes bisexuals to have differing political goals and priorities. Charles Anthony Smith, Shawn Schulenberg, and Eric Baldwin explain the ways in which the bisexual community is made invisible within LGBT politics. Lesbians, gay men, and trans identities have been the faces of the LGBT movement while bisexual identities are distinct from the movement. Bisexual politics differ immensely from lesbian, gay, and trans politics. Bisexual identity seems so invisible within the movement for this reason. Donald P. Haider-Markel and Patrick R. Miller breakdown the idea that the LGBT movement is a unified movement and they conducted a

Gays can always pass for straight, but blacks can’t always pass for white. And most can never pass” (Kenan 157). This statement clearly defines how Kenan added that sexual orientation and racial issues to the story. These are topics aren’t discussed, even in today’s society. As the relationship between Maggie and Gabriel grew, Maggie’s understanding of the homosexual lifestyle gave way to her acceptance of Edward.

Yuriana Cortez is straight and married with two daughters. Her major is Business Administration with a concentration in Human Resource Management. She interviewed Aracely and Jessica. Aracely is a 27-year-old female who manages a McDonalds and is a lesbian. She wishes others would know about lesbians is that they are humans like everyone else and have feelings and emotions too. They don’t hate men and in people tend to believe that in every lesbian couple there’s one person who has to be the man, is not true. Aracely faced challenges with her family’s acceptance and work acceptance. They all were not the most supportive at first. Society acceptance is another challenge she has dealt with and also trying to receive the same respect she shows to others is a challenge she has endured. Changes have already been made like able to marry the same sex, support groups for parents/family which was a huge thing within the LGBT community. As for diversity Aracely quoted former president Bill Clinton, “All of America loses when any person is denied or forced out of a job because of sexual orientation. Being gay, the last time I thought about it, seemed to have nothing to do with the ability to read a balanced book, fix a broken bone, or change a spark plug.” She says this quote is not only for sexual orientation it can also be for age, disabilities, religion, and race etc. Aracely’s advice for the class is to be yourself. “Why fit in when you were born to stand out?” Dr. Seuss, words can

From the early Homophile Movement to the modern day Human Rights Campaign, the LGBT community’s endeavor for equality was granted a long-time goal on June 26, 2015 when the Supreme Court ruled same-sex marriage a nationwide right. As LGBT movements have gained popularity in the fight for equal rights, LGBT culture has struggled to find a place in mainstream media. Within the community itself, there is an underrepresentation of LGBT individuals. In particular, transgender individuals are underrepresented and more negatively portrayed in media than other members of the LGBT community. There was a lack of easily accessible information regarding transgender individuals. The sources in this paper use the terms “gay,” “lesbian,” “LGB,” and “LGBT/Q”. For the sake of coherence, these terms will all be collapsed into the general term “LGBT” with the understanding that all members within this culture are not the same and are not represented the same.

In my senior year of high school my teacher assigned us to start a journal. It was to be about anything we wanted or only stipulations were that a new entry was to be turned in every Friday and it had to be a page or longer. One Friday, I came to school in the type of blurry haze that can only really be brought on by a lack of sleep, last minute studying, and emotional duress. Shortly before English class I frantically wrote my journal essay, too tired and rushed to come up with a topic that wasn’t actually on my mind. “ I just kind of wander through life, feeling like everybody else got the ‘right’ brain and I’m just left out….I keep wondering, why does everyone else deserve a happy ending?” I wrote this almost a year ago, upset and feeling like an outsider because there was no one like me in the movies or television I watched or in the books I read and if there were they get killed or reduced down to a joke or prop for the main character. I didn’t know anyone else who was gay, let alone married and happy. I’m not the only one to feel like this. Author of the article, “The Girls Are Never Supposed to End Up Together,” wrote: “I don’t want to die. Isn’t that a very human experience? Not wanting to die? (Thomas)”, as they discussed the depictions of the LGBT community in media. “Your story ends in tears or it ends in death.” (Thomas). Media that shows positive representation for the LGBT community should be valued and encouraged in order to increase the

Media has come a long way since back in earlier times. Media is a way many people in today’s world entertain themselves, express themselves and shred light to certain situations. In the event of the LGBTQ community there has been some improvements as far as giving people a part of the LGBTQ community roles in television and movies. “There has been an increase in LGBTQ representation in the media since the late 1990s in film and television, but there are still very few prominent LGBT characters in the mainstream media.” (www.criticalmediaproject.org) There was a study done by the GLAAD showing that “only 17 of the 102 movies from major studios in 2013 featured lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender characters and, of those 17, the majority were offensive and defamatory portrayals.” (www.theguardian.com) LGBTQ people were often portrayed in a stereotypical and outdated humous way that tended to make things worse for the community than better. Recently there has been many shows and movies that have portrayed members of the LGBTQ community in a positive light. But they also stereotype them in certain areas of the show to shred light to certain issues. One of the many TV shows that fall into this category is a TV show called “The Fosters”.

In 1976, when Ruth wrote her pioneering book on lesbian identity, From the Closet to the Courts, gay men and women could be fired from their jobs, targeted by police, or harassed on the street with full impunity. The majority of US states even legally barred gay people from certain jobs, including those in teaching, policing, law and medicine—even dentistry. If anything is testament to the work that LGBTQ activists like Ruth have done, it is that such measures seem ludicrous and unthinkable today.