Rap Music causes violence against Women
Essay 1
Alisa Valdes Rodriguez, a writer for the Los Angeles Times, appeals to her reader’s emotions in a manipulative way, resulting in a convincing argument about holding the music industry responsible for violence against women. She wrote an article titled “Is Music Issuing a Call to Violence?”. According to Ms. Rodriguez, misogynistic music in pop culture is considered one of the major culprits in glorifying abuse and violence towards women. She highlights examples such as the sexual assaults that happened in Central Park and her own personal experience when a young man acted aggressive towards her on the subway reciting rap lyrics. Racial stereotypes are brought up to explain why sexism is being shrugged off and not take seriously with her saying “I also honestly believe lots of people in the U.S. still believe black and brown men are somehow innately more barbaric than other men, and so excuse these lyrics as artistic expression of creatures from another universe”. She cites other examples and details as well which leads to her to put the blame on the music industry.
Many of the examples that she gives are red-herrings that lead her readers to think negatively about popular music without her giving any scientific proof backing her claims. The way she manipulates her audience is through persuasive speech that appeals to their emotions such as fear, pity, sadness, and the use of strong imagery. Alisa manipulates her readers in her intro using highly emotional charged words that consist of “We are stunned” and “Horrified” which exaggerates enough to make the reader more curious to see what is so “horrifying”. She also uses character-based appeal to seem more credible to her audience by mentioning an essay she wrote for a magazine back in 1993 dealing with violence against women. This helps her emotional appeal seem more factual to her readers by mentioning this along with a quote from her article saying “from increasingly common woman-hating pop music
Alisa Valdes Rodriguez, a writer for the Los Angeles Times, appeals to her reader’s emotions in a manipulative way, resulting in a convincing argument about holding the music industry responsible for violence against women. She wrote an article titled “Is Music Issuing a Call to Violence?”. According to Ms. Rodriguez, misogynistic music in pop culture is considered one of the major culprits in glorifying abuse and violence towards women. She highlights examples such as the sexual assaults that happened in Central Park and her own personal experience when a young man acted aggressive towards her on the subway reciting rap lyrics. Racial stereotypes are brought up to explain why sexism is being shrugged off and not take seriously with her saying “I also honestly believe lots of people in the U.S. still believe black and brown men are somehow innately more barbaric than other men, and so excuse these lyrics as artistic expression of creatures from another universe”. She cites other examples and details as well which leads to her to put the blame on the music industry.
Many of the examples that she gives are red-herrings that lead her readers to think negatively about popular music without her giving any scientific proof backing her claims. The way she manipulates her audience is through persuasive speech that appeals to their emotions such as fear, pity, sadness, and the use of strong imagery. Alisa manipulates her readers in her intro using highly emotional charged words that consist of “We are stunned” and “Horrified” which exaggerates enough to make the reader more curious to see what is so “horrifying”. She also uses character-based appeal to seem more credible to her audience by mentioning an essay she wrote for a magazine back in 1993 dealing with violence against women. This helps her emotional appeal seem more factual to her readers by mentioning this along with a quote from her article saying “from increasingly common woman-hating pop music