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Rhetorical Analysis of Strict Binary Definitions of Sex and Gender are Problematic

Reilly Tickle

Professor Fielding

Critical Reading and Writing

In Strict Binary Definitions of Sex and Gender are Problematic, author Patricia

J. Williams explores how the gender binary affects people in many different parts of

their lives. Williams examines these effects on cisgender and transgender individuals,

both male and female. The purpose of her article is to get her audience to think about

the gender binary, gender roles, and gender stereotypes, and hopefully realize that the

standards that are impressed upon individuals due to the strict gender binary are

harmful to the mental and physical health of many different types of people. Williams is

hoping to reach a wide audience to communicate why everyone should be concerned.

She is also trying to show how complex the issues of the gender binary and conformity

are. Williams uses many anecdotes and example to evoke emotional and cognitive

responses from readers.

Patricia J. Williams discusses the gender binary and the difficulties that

transgender people face in our society. She talks throughout the article about Smith, an

all-girls college, and the challenges that transgender students pose for the

administration. Williams also references multiple past events of attacks on transgender

people; She talks about the awkward discomfort that many people feel around the

subject of transgender or gender-nonconforming individuals. Near the end of the article,


Williams discusses how difficult the issue of gender is, asking how we can explore this

concept and questioning the stability and accuracy of the binary genders.

The article starts establishing Williams credibility from the very beginning. In the

very first paragraph on the page, although not technically part of the article, it states

that, Williams is a professor of law at Columbia University in New York City. This

shows that Williams is a scholar and is generally trustworthy and knowledgeable. Later

on in the article, in order to provide credibility for her claims about the heterosexual

male-female dynamic at an all girls college, and to provide insight into why she talks

specifically about womens colleges throughout the article, Williams says, I went to a

women's college, and gentlemen callers were everywhereat meals, in seminars, in

bedrooms and bathrooms, all but climbing in the windows on weekends. The article

itself does not do a great job of establishing ethos, but in doing a little extra research,

one can find that Williams not only earned her J.D from Harvard Law School in 1975,

but she also was a fellow at the School of Criticism and Theory at Dartmouth College

(Patricia Williams). Both of these schools are incredibly credible, and they do well in

showing that Williams is a very learned person. Additionally, Williams is widely

published on many subjects, including gender, which helps to establish ethos for this

topic in particular.

Throughout the article there are many examples of logos, especially anecdotes.

In paragraph two, the first paragraph of the actual article, Williams illustrates an

example of some of the injustice and malice that transgender individuals may face,

saying, In 2009 a transwoman in Queens was pelted with rocks, beer bottles and

misogynistic [anti-woman] slurs. Just weeks before in the same borough, two men used
a belt buckle to beat a transwoman named Leslie Mora. These two examples together

are especially powerful, because they both happened in a small timeframe in the same

area. These are factual accounts of instances that transgender people have faced in the

past, thus showing logos. In the same paragraph, Williams illustrates another event by

saying, : In late April [2011] a widely disseminated video captured two

teenage girls punching and dragging Chrissy Lee Polis from a women's room to the

front door of a Baltimore-area McDonald's. In referencing a videotaped event, Williams

is providing proof of this being a reality that many people have to face. In another show

of logos that is not an anecdote, in paragraph 10 the article reads, I don't want to be

sneered at for still having a woman's body, said a Bryn Mawr [prestigious Pennsylvania

women's liberal arts college] student in the process of changing genders. By using a

quote from an actual transgender person, Williams establishes logos through the words

of someone who actually experiences this treatment and harshness, rather than

speculating what a transgender person might feel.

The impact of this article is very much ruled by pathos. Williams starts off very

strong on pathos. Specifically, in paragraph 2, after referencing the video of the two girls

assaulting Chrissy Lee Polis, she writes, That video, made by an employee, shows

bystanders just watching, with little move to aid her. This quote is meant to evoke

frustration due to the failure of the bystanders to intervene, and to help people see the

unfairness and cruelty of this treatment. Following that, Williams illustrates how the

feelings people have around transgender people create a somewhat hostile

environment by stating, : The intensity of that discomfort extends to many situations

that fall short of violence. Insults and isolation in housing, the workplace, gyms, schools
and always, always in public bathroomspremised on resolute gender binarismleave

transgendered people forever making the "wrong" choice (Paragraph 3). This set of

sentences is meant to show the reader how transgender people feel and are treated by

others; it illustrates how hurt and alone they feel, surrounded in public by potential

attackers, for simply being who they are. This helps to get Williams point across

because hostility towards transgender people is fueled by the strict gender binary.

Williams also moves to include cisgender individuals as a way to show how this

strictness is harmful to more than just transgender people by bringing into question, the

culture of elective cosmetic surgery, or the cult of physical perfection that drives even

normatively gendered people to feel "not normative enough" and so seek to become

"more feminine" or "more masculine" through the wizardry of nose jobs, labial stitching,

liposuction, pectoral implants and breast enhancement (Paragraph 6). This section is

meant to show how cruel and harmful strict genders can be for everyone, opening it to a

more general audience. Here, Williams seeks to evoke anger and frustration with the

strict binary system through showing what many people believe must be done in order

to fit their ideal gender standards.

Williams raises many thought-provoking questions and uses good anecdotes to

show situations and raise feelings. However, she not as effective in her argument as

she could be because she does not make it all that clear what her feelings on the

subject are and she does not try to make it all that informative about the issue;

therefore, the paper isnt as much persuasive as it is generally interesting to think about.

She tries to convince the audience to rethink the gender binary and how it affects many

lives negatively by using stories of attacks on transgendered people. Additionally,


Williams evokes emotions of discomfort and frustration with how she talks about the

gender binary harming men and women through body image and gender dysphoria,

and through talking about how anyone who does not conform to their sex is

antagonized. In order to be a more effective article, Williams could have included more

statistics and quotes from people effected in order to show the extent and truthfulness

behind this issue. There also could have been more about how the effects of the strict

gender binary are harmful to all people while still keeping the focus on transgender or

gender non-conforming individuals. Williams also could have more clearly stated her

opinion and included some information about personal experience to show relevance

and authority through experience. This is a very important topic, because there have

been many times recently where transgender rights have been called into question

recently (e.g. Trumps military ban, the discriminatory bathroom laws), and the rise of

the feminist movement has challenged many traditional gender roles and stereotypes.

This issue is important to everyone, because throughout each persons life, there has

almost certainly been a point where a gender stereotype or gender role has been

enforced.
Works Cited

Patricia J. Williams. Columbia Law School, www.law.columbia.edu/faculty/patricia

williams.

Williams, Patricia. "Strict Binary Definitions of Sex and Gender Are Problematic."

Gender Roles, edited by Nol Merino, Greenhaven Press, 2014. Opposing

Viewpoints. Opposing Viewpoints in Context,

ezproxy.com.edu/login?url=http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/EJ3010908228/O

VIC?u=txshracd 2496&xid=ea996df4. Accessed 7 Oct. 2017. Originally

published as "Gender Trouble," http://www.thenation.com, 23 May 2011.

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