Individual Presentation or Panel Title
Analyzing the Efficacy of Argumentative Tools in Mary Fisher’s “A Whisper of AIDS”
Abstract
The AIDS movement was beginning to pick up speed in the early 1990s in order to inform the public of its dangers as opposed to the previous method of ignoring the disease altogether. Both the Democratic and Republican parties included an affected speaker at their respective conventions to support their AIDS platform. Mary Fisher, an HIV-positive mother of two who was viewed as the “All-American Republican Princess,” was chosen to speak at the Republican National Convention. This paper analyzes tools within Mary Fisher’s speech from the 1992 convention, “A Whisper of AIDS,” that allowed her to successfully grab her audience’s attention and focus the spotlight on AIDS during a time when the disease was swept under the rug. By means of rhetorical criticism, I argue that her use of ethos, pathos and logos form a personal connection with her traditionally conservative audience. I expect to find that through her use of the three argumentative techniques, Fisher instills fear and sympathy in her audience and dispels the myth that AIDS is solely a “gay man’s disease.”
Location
Janney Lounge
Start Date
3-5-2014 1:30 PM
End Date
3-5-2014 2:20 PM
Analyzing the Efficacy of Argumentative Tools in Mary Fisher’s “A Whisper of AIDS”
Janney Lounge
The AIDS movement was beginning to pick up speed in the early 1990s in order to inform the public of its dangers as opposed to the previous method of ignoring the disease altogether. Both the Democratic and Republican parties included an affected speaker at their respective conventions to support their AIDS platform. Mary Fisher, an HIV-positive mother of two who was viewed as the “All-American Republican Princess,” was chosen to speak at the Republican National Convention. This paper analyzes tools within Mary Fisher’s speech from the 1992 convention, “A Whisper of AIDS,” that allowed her to successfully grab her audience’s attention and focus the spotlight on AIDS during a time when the disease was swept under the rug. By means of rhetorical criticism, I argue that her use of ethos, pathos and logos form a personal connection with her traditionally conservative audience. I expect to find that through her use of the three argumentative techniques, Fisher instills fear and sympathy in her audience and dispels the myth that AIDS is solely a “gay man’s disease.”