Logos, ethos, and pathos

The dominant forms of appeal in Bibi van der Zee’s article, “A feminist’s guide to raising boys” are ethos and pathos. Appeals to logos are less common, as the article is mainly focused on presenting van der Zee’s personal views and experiences. 

Ethos 

Van der Zee builds ethos by using her own experience as a feminist and as a mother. Therefore, she seems like the right person to talk about raising boys in a feminist way. 

Van der Zee mentions her long history with feminism from the beginning (ll. 17-22), suggesting that she is knowledgeable about the topic. However, van der Zee also builds ethos by admitting that her theoretical knowledge of feminism was not enough, and that she did not truly understand what feminism meant until she became a mother: “To be clear: I don’t think you only understand feminism if you have children. But the embarrassing truth is that, in my...