Is It Pink By Robert N. Minor - 1220 Words

In this analysis, I will be examining 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 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 purpose, inform his audience, use effective language, or to persuade his audience to take action. Minor’s argument is essentially that our society’s gender roles†¦show more content†¦These factors lead the audience to question his credibility. In Minor’s writing, he is often hypocritical. For example, while he claims to be a strong advocate for equality between the sexes, he speaks almost entirely about men’s gender roles, only touching on female gender roles. He never even mentions different gender identities besides male and female. He also always begins speaking about men before women, which several might argue is an example of the injustices he is trying to argue against. Often he 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 used to contrast the male side, rather than being written about as its own entity. The fact that he speaks only about â€Å"men† and â€Å"women† show that he himself may be ignorant towards other identities. Additionally, while Minor constantly pushes for more tolerance for different sexual orientations, his definition of other sexual orientations seems to be limited to gay men, completely ignoring an entire spectrum of sexual orientations and gender identities. In a sense, Minor is perpetuating the same gender roles he is arguing so strongly against. Minor also uses incredibly vague sources in his writing. One example of this is seen when he incorporates a strange poem into his â€Å"evidence† (71). It isn’t recognizable or even by a recognizable author. The