Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Fielding
WRTC
9/6/17
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.
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
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
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
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
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.
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