Summary Of Miranda Devine's Modest Middleton Girls Impeccable

Miranda Devine’s opinion piece ‘Modest Middleton Girls Impeccable’ published in the Sunday Herald, May 8th, 2011, argues that todays society had become “pornified” and role models such as The Middleton sisters are bringing back “sexiness by implication”. A patronising tone is adopted when Devine refers to the “over-peroxide” and “over-cleavaged” appearance of Generation Y girls. But when the author talks about the Middleton's sisters, she uses juxtaposition by adopting a more sensitive tone of appreciation and respect, commenting on the modesty and classiness of Kate and Pippa. Devine attempts to get her readers, older people in particular, to re-evaluate dressing and popular fashion culture, by commenting on the desirability of a female that

Words such as “pornifed”, “vulgar” and “barely there” are repeated by Devine to reiterate her point of the disgusting nature of popular fashion, and the negative effects it has on young, innocent girls. Subsequently, this positions the reader to agree with Devine and her opinion, by instilling a sense of disgust. Devine carefully crafts her arguments and focuses on a large demographic by implementing different age groups and points that would be relevant to them. As this article is published in the Sunday Herald it is most likely the target audience is older people, as they are likely to agree with her contention. Although interlaced in this article is emotive language that appeals to family values to gauge a large pool of interest. Parents are positioned to feel a sense of fear as Devine argues that “no matter how hard fathers and mothers try… they cannot protect their daughters of our pornified culture”. This technique is largely effective as it is almost guaranteed to peak the interest of concerned parents as they begin to worry about the pressures society and the fashion industry has placed among their young, impressionable