TOW #5 - When Women Feel That Hand Begin To Creep

Ruth Marcus’ article on The Washington Post titled, “When Women Feel That Hand Begin to Creep,” is about the inappropriate advances made by men in business and the present event relating to Donald Trump.  Marcus recalls her own incident involving sexual assault and connects it to today’s comment that Trump has made and the allegations made against him.  We know that Marcus is a credible author due to the fact she has had an encounter with sexual assault and the fact that she has been working with The Post since 1984.  In addition, she is an alumnus of Yale College and Harvard Law School.  Marcus’ audience is young women and also women any age.  This is evident when she mentions her “daughters, now college students themselves” (Marcus 5), she wants to reach out to young women in order to tell them that they need to stand up for themselves in serious situations, and not be afraid to speak up.  This however, can also be applicable to women any age.  Her article is published at around the same time women have made allegations against Donald Trump claiming sexual harassment.  Marcus uses anecdotes and appeals to her reader’s emotions in order to tell them that women should speak up for themselves and blame men for sexual harassment and not the victims.  Marcus starts her article with her encounter with “an editor from whom [she] wanted a summer job” (Marcus 1).  When he began “creep, farther and farther, down the neckline of [her] dress” (Marcus 1) she couldn’t speak up due to the fact she needed a job.  In addition, blamed the incident on alcohol rather than his own decisions.  She includes this anecdote in order to set an example of how things should not be handled.  She is trying to show how women should never blame themselves or alcohol, they should blame the perpetrator.  In addition to anecdotes, Marcus also includes how she felt afterwards.  She says it “feels more humiliating than it did back then” (Marcus 5) and she mentions that she wanted to prove a point to her daughters.  This makes the readers feel sympathy for her and make other mothers that may be reading want to also teach this to their daughters.  No mother wants to have their daughters afraid to speak up for themselves or blame themselves for harassment.  With the use of anecdotes and appeals to emotion, Marcus shows that women should speak up for themselves and not blame themselves for things they cannot control.