Maggie Brindley

Fielding

WRTC

9/6/17

Women are more than Beauty

In 2013s, The Culture of Beautys, Natasha Walters, Women Are Judged on Their

Appearance Rather than on Their Competence, writes to all men and women about a great

problem in todays culture that is often overlooked. Walter expresses how women are not judged

by their competence, but rather their appearance. She states that her writing is scholarly, creates

sympathy for the many women that are victimized, and uses events and interviews as examples.

Through her use of ethos, pathos, and logos, she creates a strong support for her claim.

In Women Are Judged on Their Appearance Rather than on Their Competence,

Natasha Walter gives insight to why women are judged on appearance over competence. She

gives recent examples in which women are wrongly judged on their looks rather than their

brilliant accomplishments. Walter blames our highly sexualized culture for looking at women

as boobs and ass and the market for encouraging sales where women are humiliated for

being unsexy or too sexy. Walter proves that this sexist behavior is present in all social classes,

and to all ages, when she personally interviews T.V show producers, and college students.

Walter writes this article so people can be informed how prevalent this issue is and it makes her

audience question if this behavior is appropriate.

Although Walter could add more information about her credibility, the article uses ethos

as it begins by stating some of her accomplishments. After a brief summary of the article is

given, readers learn that Walter, a British print and broadcast journalist, is author of Living
Dolls (Paragraph 1). This information is important because it tells the audience that Walter is

British, but the article also gives evidence provided from the United States. This shows how the

problem she discusses does not only occur in the culture near her, but in cultures around the

world. The sentence also states that Walter is a broadcast journalist and the author of another

piece. This information makes Walter a more credible source because she is an experienced

writer and researcher. This small piece of information is a great source of ethos, but if more was

provided in the article, it would make Walters credibility stronger.

As Walter describes how women are victimized and sexualized, she used pathos to

provoke emotions that many women feel as an outcome of this. One way she does this is

questioning the reader on what was previously mentioned. Walter ends a paragraph by asking

How can young women feel confident about entering public life when they know they are

likely to be judged not for their competence and skills, but on how closely they resemble a

porn star (paragraph 7)? This question carries a lot of desperation as it states how women

who have many reasons to be confident, lack it because the judgement that is created when

they are only judged for their bodies.

Another example of how women are sexualized is described when a shows host

talked about the successful Harriet Harman by exclaiming, SoHarriet Harman, then.

Would you? I mean, after a few beers, obviously, not while you were sober ... I think you

wouldn't (paragraph 6). This statement was made on television where anyone could watch

it, making this extremely humiliating for Harriet Harman. Both of these examples of

pathos evoke strong senses of emotions such as desperation and embarrassment that makes

the audience sympathize with these women. The audience can relate to and better

understand what women who are judges for their appearance over their competence

experience through these examples.

 Throughout the article, Walter uses Logos as she quotes womens remarks when

interviewing them, and uses examples for popular media T.V shows and events. These

examples are pieces of evidence that support her claim. When Walter describes the five

young girls she interviewed while visiting Cambridge, she describes that they had just

received their degree results; more than one had a First [a bachelor's degree], they were

looking into bright futures and were full of optimism and excitement (paragraph 2). All

five girls reactions changed when she asked them questions about body image. She

describes the reactions as if a cloud passed over the sun; smiles dropped, shoulders

drooped (paragraph 2). This negative reaction directly shows how society has taught girls

to feel bad about their bodys if they dont fit a certain standard.

Logos is also present when Walter discusses the effects of media on the judgement of

womens appearances. She states that, when Ann Widdecombe, the Conservative

politician, appeared on the comedy quiz show Have I Got News for You in 2007, a large

number of the jokes centered on her unsexy looks (Paragraph 7). The show chose to focus

on her appearance instead of her position as a Conservative politician. This is also present

in another one on Walters examples where in the Wimbledon tennis tournament the

women selected to play on center court were being chosen for their looks rather than their

tennis rankings (paragraph 13). Tennis players such as, an older and more experienced

woman, Arlene Phillips, [who] was moved aside for a gorgeous but inexperienced young

woman, Alesha Dixon (Paragraph 13). Walter uses logos to identify that the market

controls what is popular over what is morale. These examples also show that what viewers

prefer, supporting her claim that the culture today is highly sexualized.

Walter is effective because she supports her claim with numerous pieces of evidence.

Present in the evidence, appeals such as Logos and Pathos are shown through factual

evidence as she writes with emotion, often ending paragraphs with questions to make
audience think. Although there are no appeals to ethos in the article, information given

before the article made Natasha Walter a credible source. Walter shows how and why

todays culture harshly judges women on their appearance over their competence and by

doing this she captures a reason for why gender equality has not yet been achieved.

Citation:

Walter, Natasha. "Women Are Judged on Their Appearance Rather than on Their

Competence." The Culture of Beauty, edited by Louise I. Gerdes, Greenhaven Press, 2013.

Opposing Viewpoints. Opposing Viewpoints in

Context, link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/EJ3010659235/OVIC?u=viva_jmu&xid=508c77e4.

Accessed 4 Oct. 2017. Originally published as "Choices," Living Dolls: The Return of

Sexism, vol. 119, London, England, 2010.