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Strategic Rhetorical Language in the Argument Between the Biological versus Sociological Etiology of Homosexuality John Martin Rhetoric of Science & Technology December 10, 2007 Topic Interest It’s All About Me! “Are people born wicked, or do they have wickedness thrust upon them?” Glenda, in Wicked “Are people born homosexual, or do they have homosexuality thrust upon them?” John 12:10, in ENG 515 The Discussion Biologists Innateness/Genetics Episodic / empiricism Kinsey (1948) Hooker (1957) Swaab (1990) Allen (1990) LeVay (1991) Kallman (1952) Bailey & Pillard (1991) Dean Hamer (1993) Sociologists Learned/Environment Sweeping / narrative Antiquity Psychoanalytic theories Parent Manipulation Theory Kin Selection Theory Planophysical Theory (Halperin) “Justified Aberration” (Foucault) The Players “Biology and Homosexuality” Author: J. Todd Ormsbee Venue: A WordPress blog Ethos: Assistant Professor in the Program in American Studies at San Jose State University Audience: Academics to Lay People Date: 2006 “The Attitudes of American Sociologists toward Causal Theories of Male Homosexuality” Authors: Michael J. Engle, Jospeh A. McFalls Jr., Bernard J. Gallagher III, and Kristine Curtis Venue: The American Sociologist magazine Ethos: Engle: Criminal Defense Attorney & Sociologist, McFalls Jr.: Professor of Sociology at Villanova University & author of 9 books and numerous papers on sociology and demography, Gallagher III: Professor of Psychiatric Sociology at Villanova University & author of The Sociology of Mental Illness, and Curtis: J.P. Morgan Investment Bank Analyst, Audience: Mostly academics, and I suspect, homosexuals Date: 2006 Strategic Rhetorical Language (Commonality) Jeanne Fahnestock noted that “most arguments in the field cannot demonstrate certainty but only establish some degree of probability, a standard with which many in the field seem, perhaps unreasonably, uncomfortable, because it always leaves room for disagreement.” Hedging Establishing reality structures Example Illustration Strategic Rhetorical Language (Ormbsee) Blog entry format Opening rebuttal paragraph Nine numbered list items for the case of biology Devices Metaphor Hedging Quasi-logical argument (transitive) Establishing a reality structure (example) Strategic Rhetorical Language (Ormbsee, Cont...) Hedging Jeanne Fahnestock In opening paragraph Type 2 & 3: Have hedges, qualifications, or “modalities” that suggest the information conveyed is not indisputable. Stage-setting metaphor (simile) “Genes act in cascades, more like a recipe than a blueprint.“ In nine supporting points “Zoological data indicates that nearly all bird and mammal species have individuals in their population with preferences for sex with…” “…colleagues found an area on gay men’s x-chromosome that appeared to be passed on through the mother’s line.” “The most likely hypothesis from this as it now stands and as we understand fetal development now, is that when a child…” Strategic Rhetorical Language (Ormbsee, Cont...) Quasi-logical argument (transitive) Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca Transitive: Because one set of relationships holds another relationship follows "[N]early all bird and mammal species have individuals in their population with preferences for sex with members of their own sex." Strategic Rhetorical Language (Ormbsee, Cont...) Establishing reality structures (Hauser) Illustration: the use of a particular case to provide support to an already established regularity “In the late 1990s, a group of scientists… found that the ratio of the finger length of the ring finger to the index finger was the same between straight men and gay women; and between gay men and straight women. The significance of this study is that we know very much about how finger lengths develop (the gene cascades that stop and start finger development in utero), and so given the corresponding ratios across sexual orientations, this indicates again a developmental component to homosexuality.” Strategic Rhetorical Language (Engle et al.) Paper format IMRAD Most hedging late in the paper Devices Hedging Visual parallelism Establishing a reality structure (example) The courtly style Strategic Rhetorical Language (Engle et al., Cont…) Hedging In the Results and Discussion sections “Apparently, the essentialist perspective held by these sociologists favors the view that biology and environment work in tandem during the developmental…” “[T]he majority of respondents… now view biology as at least playing some role in the causation of male homosexuality.” “In retrospect, respondents could have been offered a combination model…” Strategic Rhetorical Language (Engle et al., Cont...) Visual Parallelism Jeanne Fahnestock, Verbal and Visual Parallelism “Deliberate visual deployment can facilitate making inferences from the images; their arrangements constitut[ing] an argument.” Accomplished in this article through the use of… Strategic Rhetorical Language (Engle et al., Cont...) The table! In the Introduction Tabular results of 1995 study: There is no such survey comparable to this one to tell if new research has led to a shift in attitudes. In the Results and again in the Discussion Tables with new data, in similar format. The “constituted argument through visual parallelism”: We have filled the aforementioned gap for you. Strategic Rhetorical Language (Engle et al., Cont...) Establishing reality structures (Hauser) Example: the use of particular cases to make a generalization possible Posit in Discussion section: “[A] hybrid model is emerging that includes all the elements of both essentialism and constructionism, i.e., genetic predisposition, clusters of physiological factors, and social factors throughout the life cycle.” Sayer (1997) Conrad (1996) Textbook inclusion of theory Strategic Rhetorical Language (Engle et al., Cont...) The courtly style Robert Hariman (as discussed in Hauser) “Those who are courtiers strive to be in proximity with the monarch because that is a sign of power.” “It is also noteworthy that this Combination Theory is also now being espoused by some of the major textbooks in sociology. For example, Macionis’ Sociology, the dominate text since the early 1990s, states: ‘Mounting evidence supports the conclusion that sexual orientation is rooted in biology, although it is likely that society as well as biology plays a part in guiding sexual orientation… Thus the task of explaining sexual orientation is extremely complex.’” Strategic Rhetorical Language Summary Biological and Sociological Biological + + Conversing in the “room for disagreement” Hedging Establishing reality structures (example and illustration) Metaphor Quasi-logical arguments (transitive) Sociological + + Visual parallelism The courtly style The Rhetorical Future The conflict between biology and sociology is the bedrock of the nature/nurture divide. It is a divide between the social and the biological, and between sociologists and biologists and evolutionists. A divide has also separated sociology and psychology. This is not necessary, or advantageous. The varieties of approaches that exist imply that somewhere along the line, each field has something useful to say to the other. P.J. Brennan "Dumb questions - blustering hostility": Nature/nurture, the body and the sociology of child abuse A Little Holiday Rhetoric Wikipedia entry for Santa Clause