Argument:
A little of what I will be arguing is how well this action of urban knitting works as a social movement. Initially, people will share images of urban knitting on social media. Sharing the photos is a large part in how this movement spreads, but another part is for those people who participate in it. However, because this movement is so ambiguous in what it is critiquing, someone picking up the yarn to ‘yarn bomb’ might not realize the way it is critiquing a medium, a method of women used to silence them, used to have them sit in a corner somewhere and knit something for somebody. That subtlety is a little bit of what this movement is, however, because it’s purpose is so hidden does that make it a ‘social movement’.
Perelman’s Rhetoric of Argument:
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Premises
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Values
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Agreed upon guides to actions
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Sayeg’s guide to action was that she wanted to see something warm and fuzzy and human-like on the cold, steel, gray façade that she looked at. This is why she wrapped her door handle in a knitted cozy. Sayeg’s agreed upon action was to cover objects both large and small with yarn. It became an agreed upon action for her and others to continue covering objects with yarn.
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Abstract
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Not concrete: “truth” “justice”(?)
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Specific
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“True for me” “good for you”
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Creating the knitted cozy for her door handle was good for Sayeg, it was true for her. It ended up being good for others [you] because there was an explosion of “yarn bombing” across countries.
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Premise Modifiers
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Presence
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Drawing attention to premises
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Premise… by definition an argument, theory, or undertaking on… Sayeg is “enhancing the ordinary, the mundane, even the ugly, and not taking away its identity or its functionality” (1:19). I don’t believe she is claiming there is something wrong with these items, simply stating that she has the ability to change its appearance because she can, and it makes people happy.
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Argument Types
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Quasi Logical Arguments
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Definition
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Identifying or linking an expression with a concept
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Sayeg is linking an expression [her need to do something with her hands] to a concept [of covering the things in her neighborhood with yarn]
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Analysis
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Examination of definitional link.
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There is a link between what Sayeg has started with “yarn bombing” to what people feel about it in other countries. After Sayeg started this movement, it was picked up in other countries large scale. It means something to people and this is something that Sayeg said she wanted to analyze.
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Inclusion
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Treating something as a part of a larger whole
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“Urban Knitting” or “Yarn Bombing” has gotten so big that it is a part of a larger whole than Sayeg first initially thought it would become.
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Fallacies
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Bandwagon
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A popular idea is correct.
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After Sayeg started “yarn bombing” in 2005, it has crossed borders and has been picked up in multiple countries like Germany and England.
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Emotional Appeal
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Something is true because it makes us feel good or
untrue because it doesn’t.
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Sayeg started and continued with “yarn bombing” because it felt good to her. It was an emotional connection, it appealed to her, and she continued chasing the feeling of doing something different, and making people notice.
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Anecdotal Fallacy/ Misleading Vividness
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A Hasty Generalization that relies on the availability heuristic ( we generalize from vivid stories more readily).
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Sayeg covered a stop sign in her neighborhood. It caused people to stop and stare. She made the Assumption that they were staring out of wonder at such a strange sight. Some even took pictures. She generalized that it was a positive reaction.
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Rhetorical Devices
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Comparison Metaphor
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An implied comparison.
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“If you think about our hands, these tools that are connected to us, and what they're capable of doing”
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Toolbox:
Cyborg Theory:
Urban Knitting is shared through social media. It has spread across countries and is seen across the United States. People participate in the act of and sharing of Urban Knitting AKA yarn bombing and it fits with cyborg theory. Cyborg theory is in short, about the boundaries of yourself, who you are, being permeated by technology [i.e., social media]. Those who share posts or urban knitting online, influence, add to, push their social media character out of what they might normally be involved with and participate in a sort of political zone. The more you share, the more you are a part of the larger group.
Donawerth focusing on Madeleine de Scudéry:
For Donawerth and the female rhetoric she explored, I am using Madeleine de Scudéry to analyze the social movement of urban knitting. Scudéry was interested in how wit was applied to interaction in the form of a arguing back in a way that was allowed. It was their version of a polite critique, if you will and Urban Knitting fits it. Because Urban Knitting is so ambiguous in its message you can say that it is polite in how it critiques oppression of women in a silent way. It goes about by adding yarn around objects that cause people to stop and stare, take a picture and share and respond to it in a positive way without them realizing it. If the movement was sharing it’s message with a different format, say graffiti like Banksy, reactions would be different and you might lean more towards destruction of property and vandalism. Urban Knitting is the joke in the salon shop, that allows whoever uses it to save face using wit and a polite way of critiquing.
