Rhetorical Analysis

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Justin Falconer Rhetorical Analysis Assignment Section CU84 October 23, 2012 Christina Sommerfeldt The article “Post-princess models of gender: The new man in Disney-Pixar.” Written by Ken Gillam, aims to convince the audience on how movie studio, Disney-Pixar has been using a post-feminist model of gender through its “New Man Model” throughout the past fifteen years. Gillam uses techniques such as contrasting and comparing three films; The Incredibles, Toy Story, and Cars, as well as using personal anecdotes, thus creating a strong and convincing argument. Gillam first introduces the idea of the emasculation embedded characters using a personal anecdote unfolding that his two year old son unintentionally opened his eyes to this idea. Oscar, the author’s son, praises “Lightning the Queen” or more commonly known as Lightning McQueen. Interested at Oscar’s interpretation, Gillam begins to further analyze the history of male and female characters used throughout the history of Disney, stating male characters were primarily strong, good looking, and always came to the rescue of the beautiful and skinny princess. After the introductory paragraphs, the author transitions to his main rhetorical mode; contrast and comparison. Ken Gillam, a known connoisseur of children’s media, dissects the main male protagonists from Cars, Toy Story, and the Incredibles. The author starts by showing readers evidence that the protagonists are often depicted as alpha males in the early stages of their respective roles. McQueen, a race car that is in the championship race, Buzz Light year and Woody from Toy Story who compete to be the favorite toy, and Mr. Incredible, a super hero fighting crime with super strength. As the story line progresses, these alpha male characteristics are quickly diminished in all four of the said characters. Gillam bluntly states that the protagonists
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