It’s hard growing up. Pressures coming from all around us influence our decisions and how we act. On women especially, society places unnecessary pressure to look “age appropriate”. In her article “Don’t Dress Your Age”, Julia Baird uses a personal anecdote and logical facts to convey that women of any age should be allowed to wear what they want without criticism.
To start off the article, Baird includes a personal story that appeals to her readers. She explains how she was admiring a vintage dress when her former partner essentially told her to not get it because it was an “old-lady dress”. Starting off the article with this brief story immediately establishes her credibility, being a woman who’s been chastised about her attire’s age appropriateness. Simultaneously, the anecdote opens up her audience to feeling sympathy or empathy for her. Her feeling of confusion and disappointment in her anecdote makes it seem illogical to so heavily police what women wear. Why should women feel bad for wearing clothes they like?
Once Baird has started the article with strong appeals to her audience, she continues to appeal to logic with facts. After including many quotations of people telling a woman what she should and should not wear Baird writes “We are also told to monitor our appearance in a way men are very rarely told to.” Since men and women are equal and should be treated as such, how come women face such scrutiny and not men? Baird conveys the idea that it is unfair to monitor women more than men.
Women anywhere in life should wear what they want, according to Baird who conveys this using a personal anecdote and logical statements. Hopefully, we can get rid of the societal pressure for women to “dress their age”.
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