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Goal Number 3 (Part Two)

Published on As I reflect on my argumentative letter, I realize certain rhetorical choices I made were because of my audience and what I wanted to convey. Fat shaming is an issue that is very personal to me. However, I know head on confrontation is not the way to go when trying to end the practice. This is why I tried to avoid any accusatory diction (however I did use some), and instead focus on a logical approach throughout most of my letter. I present facts and different perspectives as to why a person may be overweight in order to make people pause and reconsider before they engage in fat shaming. I also used some pathos appeal by using my own weight gain and its causes, but I do so in a strictly non self-pitying way knowing that people who fat shame or assume that all overweight people are overweight because they are lazy, would not find my argument effective if I victimized myself or wallowed in self pity. I also really embraced my own voice and tone in the letter. I was sassy and patronizing at the appropriate moments such as "As you can see, I really don’t have the down time to just lie on the couch and gorge myself on the fifteen bags of potato chips, seven fried Twinkies, and four burgers that I must be eating because I’m fat." However I am also more formal, appropriate, and respectable like when I say, "Wouldn’t you be stressed out if you weren’t sleeping well or long enough, and if you were put on multiple medications all of which have weight gain as a potential side effect? It’s enough to make anyone seek comfort. Everybody has their own demons and vices and for some people, our drug of choice is food." My main tone however was informative and imploring as I struggled to dissuade the practice of fat shaming and convince fat shamers that not all overweight people choose to be that way or purposely adopt habits that will cause them to gain weight.