Dave Barry: The Ugly Truth About Beauty

Dave Barry: The Ugly Truth About Beauty

In "The Ugly Truth about Beauty," author Dave Barry uses humor to make his point about the differences in male and female perceptions of beauty and how the beauty industry impacts the genders in different manners. He uses humor for a few different reasons. The first reason he uses humor is because, while beauty may seem like a superficial topic, the fact is that female perception of attractiveness can have serious, even deadly consequences for women. Using humor allows people to approach serious topics in an everyday manner. The second reason that he uses humor is to point out his perception that men actually find this obsession with beauty to be somewhat humorous. This reflects one of the basic differences between the male and female approaches to feminine beauty; men simply do not understand why it is a serious topic. Because humor was used to reflect the gender differences that Barry was discussing, it certainly added to the interpretation of the essay.

Barry's use of humor exaggerates the differences between how men and women approach their beauty-care regimes. He likens the average man's grooming to lawn care, which is certainly understating the effort that many men put into their hygiene. He also suggests that women spend 5,000 hours a year taking care of their nails and that men fail to notice 97% of women's beauty efforts. Obviously, Barry is using hyperbole to make the point that men and women view beauty care in very different ways. However, this humorous hyperbole has a grain of truth. The reality is that men simply do not obsess about appearance in the same way as men. This use of hyperbole helps demonstrate exactly how ridiculous it is for women to be so obsessed with appearance. By highlighting and exaggerating these real life differences, Barry's use of humor helps the reader understand those differences.

Stephen Chapman: The Prisoner's Dilemma

In Stephen Chapman's essay, "The Prisoner's Dilemma," he uses comparison/contrast to build an argument. At first blush, his point is to explain why people would much rather be subject to the American criminal justice system than to traditional Islamic criminal justice system. However, by comparing and contrasting the different systems of justice, Chapman does a great job of challenging the assumptions that the Western approach to criminal justice is superior to the Islamic approach to criminal justice. After all, while people may want to claim that imprisonment is more humane than some seemingly more severe forms of punishment, Chapman's arguments really challenge that assumption.