The purpose of my article was to promote kind treatment to everyone,
no matter their gender. I aimed a lot of focus towards the significant impact of small actions every day. That one small act can really help someone feel more comfortable being themselves in public. I attempted to achieve this by giving some examples where I viewed this could have been done and explained how these little acts can lead to bigger things. My intended audience was the students and faculty of UNM so this played a large role in the style of the feature. I knew that an effective way to write would be creating a sense of community and togetherness throughout the essay. I was sure to mention our campus just to make the issue feel a bit more personal. I mentioned an example of a terrible incident that occurred on our campus, and a smaller less significant one that I viewed myself. Of course, when someone can see examples of the issue where they are, they will pay more attention to it. One thing I left out was an actual reference to Judith Butler. I chose not to include her name because I dont think many people would recognize her and it may draw focus from the main point. One thing I did include that may have not been recognized was the orange the world movement going on right now. This was done in hopes that anyone who read this may have alter done some research about this movement and maybe even find ways that they could help. One thing I would change about my feature would be including more ways to help. Do research in any activist groups on campus students could get involved with. If we want to see serious change, we should present as many options most people might not realize are there. Also, I would like to put more gender issues that are present around UNM, in programs and in classroom settings. This assignment really aided my understanding of rhetorical situations and genre. Writing a feature for a newspaper is quite different from most essays, so I had to adapt my writing style to fit the purpose. This assignment helped my usage of Writing as a social act because I did mention change at the personal, local, and national level. As for Judith Butlers essay, I thought she made good points that I had never heard or thought of before. The main point of gender being a continuous developing thing throughout life is a great perspective to give. That its not your gender that defines you, but you that defines your gender
is an eye-opening statement that encapsulates an important message. With
this in mind we can see that we are not bound by our gender schemas and that these expectations for a specific gender are absurd and unnecessary. I refer to this in my article when I talk about someone of unique gender not being able to develop as their true selves because of the criticism of others. Another great point made my Judith Butler was the fact that instead of acknowledging differences we should just ignore them all together. Instead of over emphasizing and drawing too much attention to differences we should just treat others as human beings, no matter the difference. I also touch on this subject when I mention consistency in treatment. If there is a harmless activist that you treat kindly, then the rest should get the same respect. You may not agree completely but if it is not harming people then you should treat them equally to other groups. There is a lot to be learned from Butler and I find her philosophy incredibly interesting.