Lorde Ethos Pathos Logos

In September of 1979, Audre Lorde, poet, spoke about the impossibility of dismantling the patriarchy through oppressive means. The black feminist woman, Lorde, who has cancer at the point of this speech, uses ethos, pathos, and logos in order to guilt the audience into making a change of how black feminists are represented.

Ethos is the building of the author's credibility in order to become more persuasive because people tend to believe people who they deem likable or respectable. “I agreed to take part in a New York University Institute for the Humanities conference a year ago, with the understanding that I would be commenting upon papers dealing with the role of difference within the lives of American women: difference of race, sexuality, class, and age. The absence of these considerations weakens any feminist discussion of the personal and the political.” (Lorde 1979) Off the bat Lorde is building her credibility by showing her vocabulary and her ability to convey her thoughts. In this specific quote she uses a certain diction that one would typically use if one were dignified. In the last sentence, “The absence of these considerations weakens any feminist discussion of the personal and the political.”(Lorde 1979) Her use of this sentence convinces

She exhibits pathos in this quote by saying, “The absence of any consideration of lesbian consciousness or the consciousness of Third World women leaves a serious gap within this conference and within the papers presented here.”(Lorde 1979) In this quote she does two different things. One she asserts the claim that the thoughts of lesbians and women are under considered. The second thing she does is that she addresses the audience directly claiming that the conference has a considerable gap in said understanding. Both of these tactics apply to pathos and appealing to the audience's