Appearance Based-discrimination
Rhodes assumes that her audience is aware of the issue being discussed in her article. This can be seen by looking at how she introduces her discussion by pointing out that in the first paragraph that in the 19th century, many American cities banned public appearances. This suggests that the audience know what the author is trying to pass to them at that moment. It can also be seen that she assumes her audience understand what is happening by citing various examples which serve as a reminder to the audience about an event that occurred sometime back (Manthorpe 2019). There are different preconceived attributes about appearance that Rhodes assumes her audience have. First is that the notion that people worldwide have about beauty is that and I quote “Facial symmetry and unblemished skin are universally admired. Men get a bump for height, women are favored if they have an hourglass figures, and racial minorities get points for light skin color, European facial characteristics, and conventionally “white” hairstyles.” According to Rhodes, her audience believes that someone is beautiful only if they appear in a certain way.
Rhodes presents her thesis in the second paragraph. “Across the rest of the country, looks are the last bastion of acceptable bigotry.” she states the thesis in the second paragraph because, in the first paragraph, she was presenting the real situation that was happening at that time which helps her come up with the thesis (Huggins 2015). Stating the thesis after presenting the facts in paragraph one allowed Rhodes to come up with the most suitable and appropriate thesis statement for this article. Rhodes purpose in this article is to persuade the readers about discrimination based on appearances. She uses several examples to ensure that the readers get to understand the problem at hand and these examples will help make the audience buy the idea that there is discrimination based on appearance that people experience.
The use of examples by Rhodes to present her ideas is key because the examples enable the audience to understand that the situation under discussion is real and is affecting different types of people in society. Using a few words to explain the situation presented would make it hard for some individuals to understand the concept that the author wanted to pass across. The rhetoric question presented in paragraph 15 acts as a build-up for the remaining parts of the article. The parts that follow the rhetoric questions look like answers to it but expounds more on the questions presented by the author in that paragraph. The rhetoric question is effective in that it acts as a transition model to the remaining parts of the essay (Huggins 2015). Rhodes responds to the second half of the essay by stating an argument which says that “intelligence and civility are generally related to job performance in a way that appearance isn’t”. This response shows that employers should be willing to look at the needs of the people rather than focus only on the success of the business.
Having statistical findings in research is more appealing than just providing examples. Statistics will show that the information collected is valid and can be proven. It is through statistics that Rhodes can come up with the few examples presented in the essay. Statistics are more convincing than examples in research since it gives the views of other people about a certain phenomenon rather than looking at an example of a single individual or a small group of people. Statistics covers a large portion of the population which provides evidence-based data.
References
Manthorpe, S. (2019). Physical Attractiveness in the Courts. CALIFORNIA LEGAL STUDIES JOURNAL, 61.
Huggins, M. L. (2015). Not fit for hire: The United States and France on weight discrimination in employment. Fordham Int’l LJ, 38, 889.