“Gay Marriage--and Marriage”

“Gay Marriage--and Marriage”

Mikhail Marrett
Jodi Weiss
Rhetorical Analysis
10/3/2010
“Gay Marriage--and Marriage”
Research has proven that Gay-rights advocates have been working for decades to secure matrimonial . . . rights for same-sex couples. Gay-rights opponents, however, have been fighting just as hard to keep marriage a purely heterosexual union. One such opponent, Sam Schulman, argues against gay marriage in his article, “Gay Marriage--and Marriage,” because the corruption of marriage, an institution created for “the protection and empowerment of female sexuality,” would eventually hurt all women.
Although “Gay Marriage--and Marriage” is unsatisfactory in its use of logos, the article excels rhetorically in its use of pathos which involves the appeal to emotion or the ability to persuade by making people feel something, and ethos as he tries to establish by way of “fairness and scope of argument, generosity of concessions,” and “evidence of his intellectuality.
In “Gay Marriage--and Marriage” Sam Schulman effectively utilizes pathos by appealing to traditionally delicate groups of society, employing strong diction, and exclaiming the inevitability of undesirable consequences. According to Schulman, the victims of gay marriage would ultimately be children and women. Children, although not the primary victims of gay marriage, would suffer from unhappiness, a lack of sound upbringing, and a lack of proper welfare. Women would lose the important values of freedom, protection, and empowerment.
By appealing to groups which are stereotypically given additional protection and care, Schulman brings forth the desire to prevent any action, in this case the legalization of gay marriage that would hurt those delicate groups. Schulman also uses language that is likely to incite strong emotional reactions within his readers.
To me, what is at stake in this debate is not only the potential unhappiness of children, grave as that is; it is our ability to maintain the most basic...

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