1

Running Head: GENRE ANALYSIS ON RAPE CULTURE

GENRE ANALYSIS ON RAPE CULTURE

Jose Luis Marquez

University of Texas at El Paso

 2
GENRE ANALYSIS ON RAPE CULTURE

INTRODUCTION

Rape Culture is a topic that is on the rise recently in college campuses more than anything, there

are various amount of people that believe that this culture is not backed up by facts and is based

by biased allegations. In these two different genres I chose to provide my information that talks

about the culture in various ways. The first being a YouTube video by Ben Shapiro, the title of the

video being “Ben Shapiro DEMOLISHES the false narrative of rape culture “. The second genre

being an article posted by Commentary Magazine, published by Heather Wilhelm, the title of the

article is “the ‘rape culture’ lie”. The main focus of both of these genres are to bring a different

light to the meaning of the word rape culture and to what it stands for, both genres provide facts

and statistics in the topic given and decide that rape culture is something that should be talked

about differently and must be tackled in a more different view then to what it represents.

STRUCTURE AND DELIVERY

In the article posted by Commentary, the article starts talking about when the previous president

Barack Obama started its “it’s on us” movement with the belief that College campuses have been

taken over a rape culture. This article is most probable aimed at individuals who want to discover

what rape culture is all about and what it stands for. The article focuses more on showing statistics

and facts on the matter rather than visuals in the subject or appealing to emotion. The article seems

more targeted for people who are searching for what rape culture stands for and what is the

meaning behind it. The article is structured by showing the statistics that the culture keeps getting

behind saying that “one in five” women will be a victim of rape in their 4 or 5 years at college, the
 3
GENRE ANALYSIS ON RAPE CULTURE
article goes on to counter this statistic by using very direct and extremely forward kind of

vocabulary, by saying that this allegation sound horrific comparing these statistics to the women

in the Congo where rape is used as a weapon of war. As where the second genre being the YouTube

video is more of a question and answer in a college campus where the subject debates the questions

that he is asked, in the video Ben Shapiro shows the same statistics that the video also displayed

by saying that around .61 percent of female students have been targets of sexual assault showing

that both genres are both similar on their statistics. In the YouTube video it seems to be targeted

for the audience that attended his question and answer and for the people who might have stumbled

against his video on the platform. Ben Shapiro seems to be using more of an informal kind of

speech in his audience where as in the article seems to be more formal and forward to its audience.

AUDIENCE AND PURPOSE

In the first genre involving the article the information seems targeted towards people attending an

American educational institution and to people who are interested in the culture, the article seems

to be trying to inform through all of its statistics and factual allegations. The article is trying to get

the discourse community of people who believe in rape culture to think differently by providing

information and trying to debunk their information by showing statistics. The article is structured

that in most of the paragraphs the author provided some information that the author disagrees with

and then proceeds to show its on view on the subject and show different types of information to

back up what the author is writing about. The second genre in the YouTube video the information

being displayed is targeted towards the discourse community of believing in rape culture, the

information is being used to inform and also to persuade the audience. Ben Shapiro seems to want

to bring general awareness to the matter by saying that his problem with the subject at hand is “too

vague” and proceeds to ask “who in the United States is actually Pro-rape?”. The video is
 4
GENRE ANALYSIS ON RAPE CULTURE
structured in showing how the audience asks questions to the speaker and how the speaker is quick

to answer all of the audience’s questions and show his view on the subject that he is being asked

about. The similarities between both of the genres is that they both have the same targeted audience

that they’re both trying to get the audience to achieve a different look on the subject by deploying

information and statistics on the subject, and also to bring general awareness to the subject to try

and get the audience to agree with them and to think differently on the culture.

RHETORICAL ISSUES: ETHOS, PATHOS, AND LOGOS

The layout and the look of the first genre being the article helps to establish its credibility being a

web page that looks professional and clean. The article sites all of statistics and numbers from

credible sources for example from “The Department of Justice”. The author also uses formal

vocabulary which gives a sense of more credibility. The article uses an emotional appeal by

proving a red font in the web page, making it feel like a more serious topic and discussion, the

author also uses pathos by making the way of writing serious and in some instances the tone of the

author sounds scared to some of the allegations given, making the reader feel more serious towards

the topic. The article uses evidence taken from credible sources and first brings out information

that doesn’t seem credible to the author and brings out its own information from its sources, also

by showing studies of Universities were they would do a survey and compare their results. The

author uses logos by showing information that president Obama was saying in a speech and

counters it with information and statistics that the author has researched. On the video of Ben

Shapiro, the speaker is a very well-known person who is a lawyer, and an New York Times

bestselling author, this titles helps the speaker to have well rounded credibility and the way that

the speaker speaks fluent and professionally is also a contribution to its cause. The speaker shows

emotional appeal by saying that “one of the grave tragedies is there’s so many people who are
 5
GENRE ANALYSIS ON RAPE CULTURE
raped who don’t come forward” which gives a sense of empathy and sadness against the victims

who are hiding. Ben Shapiro uses statistics and numbers to counter in his debate, in the video Ben

Shapiro uses logic to counter answer questions that he is being asked through his talk to the

audience.

CONCLUSION

Both of the genres had information and statistics and seemed to stay in their objective of wanting

to change the view of how the discourse communities view the subject at hand, both of the genres

main focus was the use of logic in all of their statements and given an answer were quick to show

their information and statistics to back it up. The YouTube video is a question and answer type of

show that is given out where the speaker is just not talking and giving a presentation, as where in

the article it is more of the author showing information and backing it up with sources. Both of

these sources are seemed to be made to inform and to want to change people’s view on rape culture

and change the discourse community.

 6
GENRE ANALYSIS ON RAPE CULTURE
REFERENCES

Ben Shapiro DEMOLISHES False Narrative of "Rape Culture". (2017, May 03). Retrieved

February 15, 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEKJThPdZNM

Wilhelm, H., Ahmari, S., Rothman, N., Eberstadt, N., Ferguson, A., Lewis, M. J., . . . Rosen, C.

(2017, August 23). The 'Rape Culture' Lie. Retrieved February 15, 2018, from

https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/the-rape-culture-lie