Misconceptions and egregious misinterpretations of feminism have caused many men and women to question the continued need for feminism in the twenty-first century. Casey Cavanagh's essay Why We Still Need Feminism? Illuminates the flawed interpretations of feminism and argues for its dismissal proposed by anti-feminism. Cavanagh targets men and women with her coherent identification of areas and problems that need a feminist lens if progress is to be made. Her essay effectively appeals to men and women by utilizing logos, ethos and pathos. She uses statistics, along with compare and contrast techniques to establish logos, activating the reader's sympathetic responses to achieve pathos. Finally focusing on many factual and personal accounts she builds the trustworthiness and authoritativeness required to reach ethos.
The target audience of Cavanaugh's essay can be clearly identified as antifeminists. This is consistent with the point she is trying to make, that feminism is necessary to the furthered utility of both genders.
Highlighting how "{both men and women} suffer from gender role assumptions." and that the true definition of a feminist is someone who is "â¦on board with one idea: All humans, male and female, should have equal political, economic and social rights." By clearly communicating the true definition of a feminist she dismisses the stereotypes of feminism which are attributed to the "⦠man hater who hates lipstick, crinkles her nose at stay at home moms, and unapologetically supports abortions on demand." This trivialization of old and interfering stereotypes makes feminism easier to accept to both and women.
The logic, or logos, behind Cavanaugh's argument is displayed proficiently by two notable techniques, comparisons and contrasts as well as statistics. This is what gives her argument the real intellectual muscle. She compares the populations of women in the United States Congress and women in the United States...