The Fall of Sexbots
Sexbots, short for sex robots, are taking over the world by the storm, quickly gaining popularity all across the globe. In addition to the newly developed technology, there are people who are against the idea of this phenomenon. Laura Bates in her New York Times opinionated article, “The Trouble With Sex Robots,” discusses the downside of sexbots. Bates began her 2017 article with a bold statement: “Frigid Farrah. That’s the imaginatively alliterative name of the sex robot that’s yours to rape for just $9,995.” In other words, Bates believe that sexbots will allow men to feel more compelled to sexually harass real women. Their behavior with realistic looking robots might transfer to their interactions with real women. Repeatedly, Bates mention how the act of rape would be influence by these robots. Throughout the article, Bates continue to defend her views by discussing the violence that sexbots may lead to.
The Big Three
Bates discourage the use of sexbots to her readers by using ethos to strengthen her research, logos explain her statistics, and pathos to target the reader’s emotion throughout her article. These are effective uses in an opinionated article because it allows the writer to reach the readers in three different ways which works better than just simply stating their main point. Bates use ethos to persuade her readers by mentioning experts with background on the topic. As for logos, Bates provided a study done by a university which backed up her main point. Lastly, Bates use pathos when she mentions controversial words such as “rape” which causes readers to feel concerned with the effects these sexbots might leave on society.
How Might I be Persuaded?
Ethos is refers to the use of “credibility or trustworthiness” when defending your main point. As mentioned before, Bates utilize this by quoting Noel Sharkey, a professor of artificial intelligence and robotics at the University of Sheffield, England. Sharkey said “The idea is robots would resist your sexual advances so that you could rape them… Some people say it’s better they rape robots than rape real people. There are other people saying this would just encourage rapists more.” She mentioned Sharkey and his profession which shows that she has done research on this topic and provided a trustworthy quote by someone who has detailed background with robotics. By sharing this quote, Bates establish ethos by gaining the trust from her audience because the quote was taken from an artificial intelligence robotics professor who had years of experience with related robots.
Logos refers to “logic or reasoning” or it could refer to the structure and use of words an author chooses in their writing. The use of logos is demonstrated when she mentioned a 2016 study by the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany which found that “more than 40 percent of the 263 heterosexual men surveyed said they could imagine using a sex robot.” This means that the use of sexbots is common within a controlled group of men. She mentions this study because it shows that many men will be interested in this newly developed technology which may result in an increase in sexual harassment. This establishes the appeal of logos because it is a number given by a group of University students. In addition, Bates bolster her use of logos when she quotes “There’s a basic human right that everybody’s entitled to a sexual life,” by Professor Sharkey. To counter this quote, she then asked the rhetorical question “But is the basic human right to a sexual life the same as a universal entitlement to a young, attractive woman?” This statement alone will have her readers reevaluating how might sexbots affect victims and future victims of abuse.
Lastly, pathos refers to “emotional appeal” which Bates utilize several times throughout the article. First, Bates said “Rape is not an act of sexual passion. It is a violent crime.” This statement screams pathos because she stated that rape is a “violent crime.” In other words, she wants her readers to know that by supporting the distribution of sexbots, you will be encourage the act of rape that many people have to endure and some do not survive. She then says “We should no more be encouraging rapists to find a supposedly safe outlet for it.” This is another example of pathos because it targets the audience emotions when she continues to use the harsh word “rape.” Most people knows rape is a horrible act that some people unfortunately must go through. This statement is said to bring awareness to the increase of rapists. In other words, she’s saying that sexbots will allow rapists to do their evil doing in a “safe” way without getting in trouble for it. This is an example of pathos because she’s targeting the audience’s emotions when speaking on the horrible act of rape and cause them to feel concern of the situation the bots will cause.
In the End…
The three main use of rhetorical appeals are incredibly useful in any persuasive writing pieces. By including more examples of each use, the author has a stronger foundation to fall back on with her main argument. I believe Bates did a good job with her three usage because it got me thinking is it even morally right to use sexbots? After reading her article, I’m wondering if the creation of sexbots will increase the number of rapists in a community. The three rhetorical appeals is helpful because if one does not succeed in targeting the audience, one of the other two might be able to. After all, not everyone feel emotionally connected. In a case like this, maybe a statement by an expert or numbers done by a study might.
Work Cited
Bates, Laura. “The Trouble With Sex Robots.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 17 July 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/07/17/opinion/sex-robots-consent.html.
Purdue Writing Lab. “Aristotle’s Rhetorical Situation // Purdue Writing Lab.” Purdue Writing Lab, owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/academic_writing/rhetorical_situation/aristotles_rhetorical_situation.html.
