Rhetoric vs. Art

It is very difficult to actively argue what is classified as rhetoric and what is classified as art because there is truly no correct answer. It all depends on the individual and their point of view. It's hard for me to separate rhetoric from art. Sometimes I feel that they are one in the same.  Other times, I tend to lean back and forth on whether all art can be rhetoric or whether all rhetoric is art. Since there is no implicit meaning, I sometimes feel that the two cannot be distinguished from one another. Nearly anything can be classified as art depending on how one views it. Someone could look at a regular wooden table as art. Although we may not look at that table as a persuasive object, someone could simply argue that it persuades one to do work. Therefore, an object that may not have been usually looked at as art initially could be persuasive in its meaning which could make it visual rhetoric. That is kind of pushing it too far but someone may look at it that way. Therefore art and rhetoric are one in the same. I view a wooden table as just that, a table; unless it is baring some sort of intricate design. As you can see, I still sort of lean back and forth between the two, but at the end of the day, it all depends on the individual and the context or genre. Context plays a major role in the analysis of the two.


Sincerely,

Suso

The Naked Truth (Peta)

Pretty funny that all of the Peta ads used here are of sexual/naked women. I have chosen the very last one with for the purposes of this blog. In this image, a woman is sitting with her back facing us and her body is marked as if she were an animal. I think that Peta used the naked woman to grab the attention of male viewers who are probably more meat-eaters than are women. Although this ad could be targeted at the female audience, I think it is predominantly aimed at men because we all know sex sells. The intention of the image is to convert people over to being vegetarians instead of eating meat. The verbal component of the image is the actual text which states, "have a heart, go vegetarian". It also states that all animals have the same parts as humans.  While initially one would think that Peta would use an emotional appeal to target their audience, the naked woman sort of blurs those lines of the specific appeal. Just based on the text, I feel that a logos approach is being used here. I'm not sure of how successful this ad would be say if it was just on a billboard on the side of the highway. The woman is fairly larger than the text and the Peta logo itself so one would maybe pay attention to the woman and not get the ideology behind the ad in doing so. Great job Peta!

Sincerely,

Suso