Ms. Amy Glaves
English II
September 4, 2012
It’s a Man’s World…Or Is It?
It’s a man’s world… That statement is as stereotypical and offensive as it is wrong, but even today, many people still believe it to be true. Zoe Flower felt that way about the video gaming industry before she researched and wrote her article “Getting the Girl: The Myths, Misconceptions, and Misdemeanors of Females in Games” (Alfano 329-33) for Playstation Magazine nearly a decade ago. She begins her work believing that in a time when women are struggling to become more empowered in society they are still being sexualized, objectified and exploited in the video game world. However, she is surprised by what she discovers and is able to see the video gaming industry in an entirely different light. In her article, Ms. Flower uses all three of Plato’s rhetorical appeals (Pathos, Logos, and Ethos) but the dominating appeal is Ethos in addition to considerable use of the Logos appeal. Considering the sensitive subject matter one would expect the Pathos appeal be most prominent yet it is used the least which is surprising. After reading the article the thing that stands out is not only the facts she learns about female character development, but also, whom she learns it from. Ms. Flower is able to interview several top executives from multiple video game development companies. This lends instant credibility (Ethos) to the facts (Logos) that she presents regarding the development of female video game characters. It ultimately builds a compelling argument that today’s popular female video game characters are not just another example of female exploitation but possibly even another step forward in the plight of female empowerment. This is the theme throughout the article, Ms. Flowers continually builds her argument, mostly by utilizing those two rhetorical appeals (Ethos & Logos). Nearly every person she interviews is some type of high level executive in the gaming
Cited: Alfano, Christine L., and Alyssa J. O’Brien, eds. “Understanding Strategies of Persuasion.” Envision in Depth: Reading, Writing, and Researching Arguments. 2nd ed. New York: Pearson, 2011. 27-44. Print. Flower, Zoe. “Getting the Girl: The Myths, Misconceptions, and Misdemeanors of Female in Games.” Envision in Depth: Reading, Writing, and Researching Arguments. Ed. Christine L. Alfano and Alyssa J. O’Brien. 2nd ed. New York: Pearson, 2011. 329-33. Print.