THE LAST BLOGPOST

The exigence I decided to address is the use of animals as testing subjects for cosmetic products. In the world we live today, there are two things that seem to reign superior when it comes to society: Superficial beauty and consumerism. These two concepts drive the way that the world perceives men, women and even children. Men are only truly powerful if they are wealthy in the US, children are only seen as well liked or popular if they have the newest toy or gadget in school. Women are only seen as worthy beings if they are beautiful. This pressure to be pretty puts a lot of strain on women to do things to fit the image of “beautiful”. Women work to keep up their image with their hair, their clothing, their body shape/image, and most of all, their cosmetics. Finding a woman who has never worn makeup might be more rare than finding a unicorn. Then, the consumeristic society we live in today strives to make as much money as possible with as little costs going into their product/service as possible. This is why makeup companies test their products on poor, helpless animals, and the extreme demand for makeup and other beauty products only encourages this behavior. Beauty is such an imperial part of a woman’s self-worth and societal success, that its incredibly difficult to overcome this terrible system that tests on animals.
Social media is one of the most common things that people use the internet for. It is on the up-and-coming, and it is already incredibly popular amongst people. You might be seen as weird or different for not having Facebook, you might seem distant or mysterious if you’re not on twitter. People are ostracized for not being connected to the world through their computers. The bright side of this is that everyone is on their computers! If you have something to say, or you want to get something done, turn to the internet. Trying to get famous? Put a video on youtube. Hell, you can even become “Vine Famous” now-a-days. Another social media that has over millions of users is tumblr. Tumblr started out as a “secret society” of people “trying to get away from Facebook.” I had a tumblr back when it was under the radar, and I would constantly see on my dashboard (equivalent to newsfeed) “Rule Number One of Tumblr is not to talk about Tumblr.” It was like flipping Fight Club. Now, obviously, more people have jumped on the bandwagon. That is why I picked Tumblr as my genre. Lots of people have blogs about things that they are passionate about. People look at each others blogs and help promote them by “reblogging” them. Its an easy and creative way to get my message out into the world.
The tactic I used to try to overcome this exigence is the use of shock value and appalling content. The use of these two factors helps bring people’s attention to the issue at hand. The title of my blog is “F*** ANIMAL TESTING.” It is made to bring people’s attention to my website. Then I continue by reblogging things that would pull at your heartstrings; cute pictures of bunnies and kitties playing in the free world juxtaposed to pictures of animals being harmed in labs. This draws a lot of rhetorical strategy from Pathos since it is emotionally driven. No one wants to see cute small animals being tortured. Its gruesome. But it needs to be seen because then people will want to stop it from happening on such a massive scale. Then I provide a call to action by telling people multiple ways they can stop this terrible exigency. I give them links to sign petitions, I give them websites to buy cruelty-free cosmetics, and I give them links to pledge to be cruelty free to help save these innocent creatures. My rhetorical goal is to get people to pay attention to the issue, then to show them that they can change small aspects of their lives to help make a ripple in the cause.