Author: The article “Belarus’ leader helicopters over Minsk with a rifle as protesters below demand his resignation” by Mary Ilyushina, CNN is written by Mary Ilyushina to inform people of what is going on in Belarus and how the president or more accurately dictator addresses the demands of his people.

Rhetorical Analysis/Exigence: So this article from a side view doesn’t focus on any specific social issue, however if you dig deeper it is displaying how corruption within governments subdues the desires of people often to a point that crosses moral standing. According to the article the president of Belarus “Alexander Lukashenko responded to huge anti-government protests and calls for his resignation by posting video of himself flying over Minsk in riot gear, with a rifle hanging from his shoulder.” The main point of the article is to inform people that revolting against oppression and corruption such as the government within Belarus is important for the freedom of people.

Audience: This article is primarily meant for people that want to know what is happening in other countries and want to help. From the way the article is focusing on the actions of the president and how he treats his people. It is almost designed to get anyone involved and speak out about it. It is targeted towards people that would see this and speak out against this oppression whether they are Belarusian or not. It also to a degree can be targeted towards society as a whole and could be compared to the actions of our current president in regard to his time in office and actions during the recent pandemic we have all been affected by.

Purpose: The main purpose of the article is to capture the oppression and injustice currently taking place within Belarus and to get people interested and to find out more about what is going on. As well as to show the point to which corruption and oppression can grow within a government. Almost as a warning. For people around the world to not wait to fight for their freedom and justice like the people of Belarus did by allowing Lukashenko to remain their dictator for 26 years. To stand up and fight for one’s country is something that can also be inspiring for other countries around the world. Lukashenko isn’t the only dictator out there and maybe someone in another country will see what is happening in Belarus and decide to take action within one’s own country to fight corruption and oppression.

Genre: the genre of this text is an informal article that is telling people about how far governments can go and what it can mean for people around the world. Its mostly informative and has little opinion if at all regarding the actions of the president however it feels like it is designed in a way to get people to get involved almost. For a president to walk out into protestors with a machine gun, that will get anyone riled up. Which goes back to the article we had to read which talked about how the way words are structured and change how people interpret them.

Stance: Since this article is almost free of opinion, it has no stance. It is however slightly biased in the opposition of Lukashenko.

Source:https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/24/europe/lukashenko-belarus-helicopter-rifle-protests-intl/index.html

In our society, gender inequality has become a prominent issue. Society has standards on how each gender should behave and act in a specific way. The speech Emma Watson gave to the UK was effective in conveying the issue of gender inequality to the audience. She argues the need to end these gender stereotypes by launching the campaign called “HeForShe” because if we don’t, gender inequality will always exist which will be detrimental towards our society. Emma utilizes an emotional appeal to develop her argument on the issue of gender inequality. She uses her personal life experience to create a sense of emotion that relates to the issue of gender inequality. She states, ”I’ve seen my father’s role as a parent being valued less by society despite my needing his presence as a child as much as my mothers. I’ve seen a young man suffering from mental illness unable to ask for help for fear it would make him less of a man. Watson’s life experience has shown us what we as humans have done to our society. We created these gender stereotypes that have been pernicious to our society. We have made standards of how a male and a female should behave and act in a certain way. For example, we believe it is a women’s job to take care of children more than men, but in Watson’s case, she needed her father’s presence just as her mothers. Furthermore, we as a society believe men are supposed to act strong and asking for help wouldn’t make them more manly. Again in her case, the young man was suffering, but didn’t ask for help due to the gender stereotypes we as a society established. This generates powerful emotions of sorrowfulness because of the constant rejections the man had from society and how he suffered from it.  Emma also states, ”If we stop defining each other by what we are not and start defining ourselves by what we just are.” Watson is addressing a potential solution to our gender inequality problems by asking us to stop focusing on each other, but rather ourselves. We need to ameliorate our society to make it more welcoming and comforting for everyone. Everyone should freely express how they act and behave without us implementing these gender stereotypes onto people. If we can unite and work together to end these gender stereotypes, then we can have a promising future that welcomes everyone to express themselves in whatever way they want.     

Source https://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2014/9/emma-watson-gender-equality-is-your-issue-too