One fallacy in the essay "The Wife-Beater" is "Some articles quote women who felt the shirts looked great, especially on guys with great bodies. One woman stated that it even made guys look "manly." So manly equals violent?" This fallacy is the type called Personal Attack, or Argument Ad Hominem. This fallacy affects the validity of the argument by attacking the motives or character, this causes the readers attention to divert from the facts of an argument. Rather then focusing on the negative significance of the "Wife-Beater", the author slides the readers attention to her opinion.
The quote "Wearers under 25 do not seem to be disturbed by the name " exhibits another category of fallacy. This type of fallacy is Hasty or Sweeping Generalization. The authors statement is biased and doesn't have evidence to back it up. The author generalizes that the younger generation does not see the negative outlook it causes because of it's title, "Wife-Beater". This generalization is invalid because the author didn't prove it accurately.
Hey Jordyn,
ReplyDeleteI like your first fallacy quote in that it has many truths. The author does try to shift your attention away from the ribbed tank top and on to a different subject trying to get you to correlate the wife-beater with parental actions by bringing up a fact about children learn abusive behavior from their parents. It is off the topic of what we are actually talking about.
I also agree with your second quote about how the writer thinks that since women like the look of the shirt on fit men it automatically means that manly equals violent. It is a personal attack on men, but I also think that it could be Hasty or Sweeping Generalization since she is jumping to the conclusion that manly now equals violent. You did a great job! See you tomorrow!
Jordyn,
ReplyDeleteI think the first fallacy that you chose was right on. I used a similar quote and said that it was also red herring since she takes away the audience's focus on the real reason she is writing this text. You could also consider that fallacy as Hasty or Sweeping Generalization since she doesn't have any evidence to prove this specific point. I also really liked your second fallacy example. I used the same exact quote and thought that it was a quite noticeable fallacy in the text because she is almost verbally attacking the woman's opinion, rather than trying to prove her point. Your third example of a fallacy also made sense. You could also add to it by saying that since she used this statement at the beginning of the essay, she was almost jumping to the conclusion that people under 25 don't seem to be disturbed by the name. Also, when you quote a story or text, try to put the page number after it to make sure a reader knows where you got the quote from. Good job :)