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Alex DeSoto
English 101A
Dr. Bose
23 April, 2016
Detrimental Determination

Dean Saxton who refers to himself as Brother Dean is no stranger to a diverse set of
genre tools to exploit his presence and purpose to the University of Arizona students. While
displaying crude propaganda posters and ridiculing passing students, Saxton can be found on a
Daily basis open air preaching at Heritage Hill. By using textual genres as social constructs to
educate the public on his worldly views, Brother Dean attempts to provide his audience with the
word of God using rhetorical analysis to clearly convey the purpose for his social activities.
Brother Dean uses these profane posters as well as his radical online presence as tools to
advocate his mission.
The true challenge Brother Dean is consistently faced with is how to get his message
through to the audience. He has adopted certain genre strategies because he believes them to be
effective social constructs in having his audience better understand his purpose. These constructs
are key components in his daily rallies and blog posts, and are incorporated to assist him in
conveying his ideas in a convincing manner. The social construct that has been created for him is
his presence as a radical preacher, and therefore these genre techniques are used to continue
adding credibility to his reputation.
Brother Dean has a strong belief that his purpose on Earth is to communicate to people
the word of Jesus Christ. He has also incorporated his own beliefs into what he preaches as

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Gods word and this includes the strong belief that women should not carry equal rights, nor be
permitted to attend the University at all. Dean also scolds homosexuality, along with the idea that
God hates Muslims. His main goal during these public displays is to get a reaction from his
audience and ultimately convert people. He is doing a miserable job of converting but a great job
getting attention and the audience reaction. This extreme rhetorical pathway and the effective use
of these genres have led him to become a key polarizing figure on this campus. In Deans
testimony on his website he states the belief that he represents good battling the forces of
evil(Saxton). He has faith in his understanding of Gods word, and truly believes he is fighting
evil through his actions.
His posters, which are often vulgar and demeaning attract crowds for a short period of
time and are often his gateway into getting an audience to observe his speeches. Quite
understandably, college students are drawn to Dean Saxton because of the offensive and
uncommon site of a person displaying these acts in public. His posters have an array of harassing
quotes such as You Deserve Rape and You Deserve Hell which are regularly used to chastise
girls who are passing by. As Michael E. Herz explained in the Content and Context of Hate
Speech: rethinking regulation and responses, there is now a logical cause for banning hate
speeches because of the disruptive and harmful nature of their presence. Like other hate
speakers, Dean frequently expresses his strong opinions on sex and rape during his speeches, and
even confronts people in the audience to make an example of as he ridicules them. The topics he
speaks on always refer back to the purpose of the posters present, because it gives him a visual
tool to compliment what he is preaching. He uses these signs as a key rhetorical factor in his
public displays because they have become part of his character. He has tried using music and
other props to attract crowds, but his main source of popularity comes from his abusive signs that
are usually made of nothing more than a poster board and some black paint. Brother Dean

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successfully capitalizes on these rallies as a public genre to make claims and elicit a reaction
from the crowd. From my research and observations, the majority of his focus when making
posters is ridiculing students, particularly females for their clothing, promiscuity, and their ethnic
and social background. As Brother Dean stated in a Vice YouTube profiling video on himself
titled Slut Shaming Preacher, he feels that his purpose here at the University of Arizona is to
preach out against the sin of immodesty (Vice), and he strongly wants to fulfill that obligation.
He believes that the qualities that are displayed on this campus by females are deserving, asking,
and responsible for rape. These qualities on this campus are what he disagrees with and believes
to be sinful.
Brother Dean has also found additional platforms to attract an audience for his chaos. He
has continued to find new ways to appeal his beliefs and in doing so has resorted to Twitter to
continue his repulsive abuse online. He makes many obnoxious statements about Muslims,
feminist thinkers, womens rights, and bisexuals on his twitter feed and has allured well over a
thousand followers to his page. The purpose behind designing his twitter was to attract an online
crowd, by reaching out to those who cannot experience him speak first hand. He wanted to gain
viral attention and preach to more than just the local community. With the same motivating
purpose of spreading the word of God, this was a new way for Dean to gain popularity and
continue the right of free speech. The majority of his twitter audience happens to be University
students who hear about or see his uncivil acts and take interest in learning more. He
incorporates videos, pictures, links, and hash tags as genre to involve his twitter followers even
more on the topic being criticized. A lot of the material on his page could be considered
detrimental to some viewers and in my opinion should be screened or blocked for the
consideration of the public. Although seemingly extreme and spontaneous, Saxtons message is
well thought out before he publishes anything online. He takes into account his purpose as well

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as the desired audience whenever he makes a public claim. The unconventional purpose for each
claim varies, but a strong central purpose of wanting people to adhere to the Bibliographical way
God wants us to live and act remains the same. With multiple publications a day, Saxton at times
goes on rampages about his belief on these controversial topics. This twitter platform has been a
very useful tool for Brother Dean to continue generating popularity, and it plays a vital roll in his
mission.
Dean also authors his own website https://deansaxton.wordpress.com, which explains his
mission, Spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ!(Saxton) and states his ideas in an inflammatory
manner. At the top of his site there are pictures and tabs that are incorporated to involve his
viewers and elicit their reactions. He uses a basic blog style template, with black font and eyecatching titles such as his last post, Church: The Worst Place to Go(Saxton). He post frequent
articles, videos of his rallies, and has his personal testimony displayed on his site. He also takes
comments and reactions from people as a way to get them active on his site. It is a gateway from
twitter for people to be able to learn more on his beliefs and goals, as well as a good centralized
site for his works.
As we can now see Brother Dean is very complex when it come to the textual genres he
uses. His cleverness has assisted him in figuring out the right rhetorical strategies that allow him
to get his message out and attract considerable attention. Through the social constructs that have
been created, Dean rebels against norms and in his own way seeks to be a Savior, and guide
students in avoiding Hell. Several platforms have allowed him to focus his efforts, as well as
incorporate unique design techniques to continue his mission of preaching on the word of the
Lord.

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Works Cited
"About Brother Dean." Open Air Preaching with Brother Dean. N.p., 01 Nov. 2012. Web.
23 Apr. 2016. <https://deansaxton.wordpress.com/about-brother-dean/>.
Herz, Michael E., and Pter Molnr. The Content and Context of Hate Speech:
Rethinking Regulation and Responses. Cambridge;New York;: Cambridge University Press,
2011. Web.
Vice. "Slut Shaming Preacher: Profiles by VICE." YouTube. YouTube, 12 May 2014.
Web. 23 Apr. 2016. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkNQDOPjcdU>.

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