"A web search shows that kids nation wide are wearing the skinny-ribbed white T-shirts..."
In this quote from that text, Smith is using the Red Herring fallacy. The fact that children around the nation may happen to be wearing wife-beaters has noting to do with the issue being argued in the text; abuse. She is trying to draw the readers attention away from the text by claiming that since kids are wearing the shirt, they too will become abusive and contribute to the problem.
"More that 4 million women are victims of severe assaults by boyfriends and husbands each year."
In this quote, the fallacy It Does Not Follow or Non Sequitur is used. When Smith states this fact at the end of the text, she has not proceeded it with any other evidence about assault. Smith only comments on the facts about the name of the wife-beater shirt. The quote above does not have any meaning or position when stated after that, therefore making it irrelevant and a Non Sequitur.
"In the article, some sources argued that the reference in the term was not to spousal abuse per se but to popular-culture figures such as Ralph Cramden and Tony Soprano. And what about Archie Bunker?"
The fallacy that is being used in the above quote is Appeal to Doubtful Authority. Smith is using this fallacy to try and strengthen her argument about assault by bringing in famous figures. No facts about the men in the quote above were ever stated about them being abusive. Therefor, they have no appeal to Smith's argument.
Hey Claire,
ReplyDeleteI agree with your first quote, that the author is using this fallacy to draw the attention of the reader away from the point of abuse. Her saying this is an opinion and I have seen it first hand that the wife beater is not worn by all kids, and not all kids who wear them act out in violent ways so you made a very good point with that fallacy. But I also think Hasty or Sweeping Generalization could be used because she is jumping to a conclusion that because a kid is wearing a wife beater he will become violent which is completely not true. Otherwise I think you did a magnificent job and I will see you bright and early tomorrow morning! :)
Claire, you did a phenomenal job with finding fallacies in the essay "The Wife-Beater". You caught a lot of fallacies that I did not. I like your first example of a fallacy because that is correct not all people wear "wife-beaters" I bet not even twenty-five percent of our school doesn't even wear them! She is making such a broad generalization that we our selves can prove to be false. I also enjoyed reading your second example because this is a fallacy that I did not catch, but I thought was very clever to point out. The author is turning the attention of the audience to the topic of abuse instead of staying on the topic of the why she doesn't like the name of "wife-beaters." This depreciates the value of her essay because it is giving extra information that the reader doesn't need to know and wont help them to understand the her intent. Your last fallacy that has to do with Appeal to Doubtful Authority is probably my favorite of the three you pointed out. I tried to find a fallacy like this one but did not do as well of a job as you, this is a great example. You did very well keep up the great work! See you at approximately 8.18 tomorrow morning!
ReplyDeleteIn the first quote indicated i do not agree that the author is creating a red herring, rather the author appears to be creating grounds around her argument. She appears to be simply trying to convey the shirts popularity in today's culture in attempt to show how widely accepted the name is. In doing this she can elaborate upon how we as a society accept this name, without really thinking about what we are saying and what we are teaching to those around us.
ReplyDeleteSecondly I disagree with the indication of a Non-Sequitur fallacy within the given quote. Non-Sequitur implies more that an action that proceeds an event is not necessarily a result of the original event. Were the author to state something along the lines of "4 million men confessed to having worn a "wife beater" style shirt at some point in there life and having also committed some act of domestic abuse" you would have a prime example of Non-Sequitur as the domestic abuse following the wearing of the "wife beater" in no way correlates with the commitment of domestic abuse. The author even stated at the beginning of her essay that it is a very prevalent shirt, so statistically an offender is therefore more likely to have worn such a shirt at some point
So though I do not agree with the fallacies within the given quotes I can definitely see where you were going your thought process.