Rhetorical Analysis Of Marooned On Gilligan's Island By Pollitt

Katha Pollitt, in her essay, “Marooned on Gilligan’s Island: Are Women Morally Superior to Men?” addresses the topic of how difference feminists actually weaken women. Difference feminists believe that women are morally superior to men. Pollitt was invited to sign a peace petition, but realized it was actually demeaning to women. Throughout her essay, Pollitt discredits several difference feminists by stating the flaws in their claims. The claims difference feminist make are such as the idea that all women are nurturers. To enhance her argument, Pollitt uses three rhetorical strategies: pathos, logos, and ethos.

Pathos is the emotional appeal that writers use to persuade a reader. Pathos shows the emotion of the author which transfer

Logos is presented in various ways such as statistics or even just logical thinking. Pollitt’s logical thinking is placed when she explains that Nancy Chodorow, a difference feminist who believes that naturally women are relational and men are autonomous, is wrong when analyzing the real world. Pollitt states, “If Chodorow is right relational women and autonomous men should be the norm, but are they?” (404). Pollitt is informing us that it is clear that we all seen men and women who do not follow such criteria. Readers can see and relate with Pollitt’s idea, and realize the logical reasoning behind it. Pollitt then moves on explaining the logical reason why women are attracted to difference feminism. Pollitt points out that people enjoy hearing the positive qualities they have. Difference feminists use this to their advantage. Pollitt states, “Difference feminists want to give women credit for these good behaviors by raising them from the level of instinct or passivity- the Camille Paglia vision of femininity- to the level of moral choice and principled decision” (407). Pollitt maybe thinks that logically women only follow difference feminism because it makes them feel good, this shouldn’t be the case. Pollitt may be suggesting that the ideas of difference feminism can be countered by looking at the world. Difference feminists claim that the lives of men and women are distinct. Pollitt logically claims that, “The ultimate paradox of difference feminism is that it has come to the fore at a moment when the lives of the sexes are becoming less distinct than they ever have been in the West” (411). Pollitt’s logic is that we all seen how women have dominated roles that were considered just for men. Difference feminism claims that women are not entirely equal, when they actually are. Pollitt’s logic leads to the realization that difference feminism massages their ideas; they are not doing women any good.