The difference in opinion between Harrison Pope's: Evolving Ideal of the male Body as Seen Through Action Toys and Kim Franke-Folstad's: Big Biceps are Not a Big Deal.
1.The first argument is discussing how action figures can have an effect on how a person sees their body later in life. It makes the claim that most men are not happy with their body and don't believe they are muscular enough and that this idea might come from the toys they played with as children. Starts off by talking about common body image disorders and the common perceptions of what causes them. He then goes on to his method of trying to find a correlation between toy figures and male perception of their bodies. The writer uses images of toys GI Joe and Star wars action figures to show how toys have evolved into figures with abnormal bodybuilder type physiques. He does state in his discussion that these claims need to be studied further to find out whether trends of toys really affect how men view themselves.
The second argument argues how the points raised in the first argument are "silly, foolish and ugly." Franke-Folstad makes the connection between the article about male action figures and the common perception of Barbie and their image. Franke-Folstad argues that they are just toys and that kids see them more as super hero action figures than actual human beings they want to be like.
2. The first argument is laid out as a research paper with; an introduction, the method, the result and a discussion. Pope draws in many of others ideas in the introduction which he later discusses later. "Another form of body image disturbance is body dysmophic disorder (Phillips, 1991, 1997; Hollander, Cohen & Simeon, 1993)." The use of quoting names and publications adds integrity to the article. This gives the article good ethos and lots of validity despite the points he wants to raise. There are 28 references for his article and shows that he has made thorough research to justify his points.
However, the second argument is laid out as an article you might find n a newspaper or magazine. Just looking at the article in its form with 3 columns and short paragraphs to make his points, you as the reader, give it less credibility just on what it looks like. You can immediately tell it's a report based only on one persons view without the research that can be found Pope's argument. The article is pathos motivated with an emotional tone. You get the idea of outrage of the author from reading Pope's article; "And it now turns out good old G.I Joe has been subject to the sae silly poking and probing." His use of words "foolish and silly," show that he is trying to talk more to peoples emotion than intellect.
3. I agree with Franke-Folstad that saying toys affect how men look at their appearance is a bit far fetched. However I completely agree with the idea that what people see in the media and are surrounded by each day is causing people to question there physical appearance. The media has created the image of beauty through celebrities and super models, which people now judge their self against. Toys being an influence of men's appearance may be bit more farfetched. It may be more relevant with females and barbie dolls, girls when younger are more likely to be thinking about what they look like and what they want to be like when they are older. I didn't really have any action figure toys so maybe I don't have the best view of the situation but I can say for sure that toys would not be a reason I question my muscular appearance.
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