Is It Pink By Robert N. Minor - 1223 Words

This analysis will examine chapter three, â€Å"Is it Pink? Is it Blue?† of Robert N. Minor’s book, Scared Straight: Why It s So Hard to Accept Gay People and Why It s So Hard to Be Human. Minor is a Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Kansas and often focuses his writing toward gay rights and gender roles in society. This particular book is a cultural critique of the United States’ gender roles and homophobia. Minor’s arguments leave a weak impression and leave readers with a sense of confusion. Minor ineffectively uses rhetoric in his arguments to establish a purpose, inform his audience, use effective language, or to persuade his audience to take action. Minor’s essentially argues that society’s gender roles are†¦show more content†¦Consequently, these factors lead the audience to question his credibility. In Minor’s writing, he is frequently hypocritical. For example, while he claims to strongly advocate equality between the sexes, he speaks nearly entirely about men’s gender roles, only touching on female gender roles. He scarcely even mentions different gender identities besides male and female. He also always begins speaking about men before women, which several might argue is an illustration of the injustices he is trying to argue against. Time and again Minor will take up two or three pages speaking about the male point of view on a topic, but only a few paragraphs relating to the female side. Also, the female side is usually utilized to contrast the male side, rather than any examples of Minor truly writing about as its own entity. The fact that he speaks only about â€Å"men† and â€Å"women† shows that he himself may portray an ignorance towards other identities. Additionally, while Minor constantly pushes for more tolerance for different sexual ori entations, his definition of other sexual orientations appears limited to gay men, completely ignoring an entire spectrum of sexual orientations and gender identities. In a sense, Minor perpetuates the same gender roles he argues so strongly against. Minor also uses incredibly vague sources in his writing. One instance of this is seen when he incorporates a strange poem into his â€Å"evidence† (71). This poem