Same sex marriage: legal, social, and cultural perspectives

Same Sex Marriage

Aristotle, a genius of persuasion, described three types of rhetoric, ethos, logos and pathos. According to Aristotle, rhetoric is "the ability, in each particular case, to see the available means of persuasion" ("The Art of Rhetoric: Learning How to Use the Three Main Rhetorical Styles"). In "The Institution of Marriage Itself Is Out of Date," author Mary Hunt does a poor job of persuading readers because she makes such poor use of rhetoric techniques.

There are many shortcomings in Hunt's article. She does little to establish ethos, credibility or trustworthiness. Hunt begins with an attack on the religious right and the injustice of a heterosexist culture without first establishing why their views are unjust. She has some credibility on the issue of same-sex marriage by disclosing that she is a lesbian in a long-term committed relationship with a daughter and by bringing in the opinions of various feminists to support her thesis that is it better to advocate for the kind of society in which we would like to live rather than extending rights of a vastly flawed institution to all people. But her reasoning or logos for this thesis is very confusing. She states, "I see no reason to reinforce such a dysfunctional model by insisting on admitting more people to it, though I understand that everyone should have the right to be wrong." If Hunt is not trying to support same-sex marriage she should have left this issue out of her argument and focused solely on today's marriage model. She attacks the role of the clergy, resenting the lack of separation of church and state in marriages, but acknowledges civil ceremonies as an option. It is difficult to see what purpose alienating the religious community serves. Lastly, pathos arouses emotions to persuade an audience. This is the weakest area of Hunt's article which is completely devoid of emotion.