Emma-Louise Maras

Christian Enos
First Year English Writing
A rhetorical analysis on Gina Pianigianis Article Italys Fertility Day Call to Make Babies
Arouses Anger, Not Ardor
Considering having a family? Or are you a (Italian) women longing to have a child? In an
effort to promote and to celebrate Fertility Day in Italy, the Italian government released ads
encouraging, in particular Italian women, to have more children. These ads received backlash as
they were seen as offensive and sexist by the many women. Pianigiani, in reaction to the ads,
therefore reports this event in her article and offers a reflection of the current low birth rates in
Italy.
Below we see two of the Italian ads that received backlash. The one on the right states
Dont let your sperm go up in smokeand the one to the left says Beauty has no limit, fertility
does.

Fig. 1

Fig. 2

The rhetorical situation sets off with one thinking that the core topic of this article is the
sexist ads and the backlash its received, when in fact the author more discusses the reason
toward why there are so low birthrates in Italy. The title is therefore misleading, a suggestion
would be to change it into something that involves the importance of or the reason to why
there are so low birthrates in Italy. Pianigianis rhetoric would have then been more effective.

Emma-Louise Maras
Christian Enos
First Year English Writing
As one interprets the rhetorical situation of this article many different factors point
toward the intended primary audience to be anyone not familiar with the current situation of the
low birth rates in Italy. At first one might think that Italian women are the primary audience, but
from analyzing the article it is more likely that they are the secondary audience. This has to do
with the fact that Italian women already are aware with the struggles with child care in Italy.
Why should a journalist educate them on that? Instead it makes more rhetorical sense to educate
those who are not aware of the difficulties with child care in Italy, for example those in
government.
From the evidence presented, one draws the conclusion that this author hopes to convince
the reader that it is not that women in Italy dont want kids, but that having a child carries huge
economic pressure and burden due to lack of social services making it harder to manage as a
working mom. The author emphasizes sympathy for Italian women and other women in the
world with the same situation.
In order to craft a rhetorical stance to respond to the situation, the author uses logos as a
rhetorical appeal. This therefore doesnt exclude anyone in the audience. As the purpose with this
article is to inform, by choosing to write an editorial, the author has used this genre to show
clarity in order to achieve her goal.
Analyzing the article only from an objective point of view, the author has chosen to
structure the article by using many different paragraphs, in order to attach factual information. I
have decided to include three paragraphs in an attempt to further examine Piangianis rhetorical
uses:

Many working women, without an extended family to care for a child,

face a dilemma, as private child care is expensive. Some also worry
that their job security may be undermined by missing workdays
because of child care issues. Many companies do not offer flexible
hours for working mothers.

Emma-Louise Maras
Christian Enos
First Year English Writing
Here we see the superlative of the authors purpose. This is in which the author shows
their rhetoric in how the purpose is emphasized. The tone is set as very tense. There is a very
logical and clear line throughout the paragraph. In order to become more effective with
emphasising her genre, the response to the situation is seen in how formal and adequate she
presents her writing skills in the English language.

Not surprisingly, Italys long slowdown in childbirth has coincided with its recent
economic slump. But Italian families have been shrinking for decades.

In this short paragraph we see that the persona of the author starts to show. When
Pianigiani uses the words not surprisingly her subjectivity is hinting toward that this is not
something new and unknown, one should know about the economic recession, tying this back to
her audience. One can make the conclusion that in her opinion, Italys current economic slump
must be a decent explanation for the low birthrates. The sentence later she changes tone by
saying that it does not only have to do with the economy, that there is a deeper underlying
problem.

By contrast, in France, the economy has been flat, too, but

a family-oriented system provides a far more generous social
safety net that includes day care and subsidies for families to
have children. There, women have two children each on average.

In this paragraph Pianigiani uses France as a contrast to Italy to further persuade one of
her arguments. As we see, she explains that France has much more of a family-oriented system
which can thereby provide a more stable social care for children. How one might learn from
France in management but also to explain how come on average French women have two kids.
One can draw the conclusion that Pianigiani is biased on the subject as she fails to take into

Emma-Louise Maras
Christian Enos
First Year English Writing
account other factors, such as immigration, that can influence and determine the fact that French
women have two children on average.
Has this author been successful in her rhetoric? To a great extent I found the author to be
persuasive. This has to do with the logical use of factual information to backup her claims.
Although the author could have used a different title and given more of an extensive claim
towards her arguments, when viewed whole-heartily, I do believe she was successful in using her
rhetoric.

Cited Work
Pianigiani, Gaia. "Italys Fertility Day Call to Make Babies Arouses Anger, Not Ardor." The
New York Times. The New York Times, 13 Sept. 2016. Web. 18 Sept. 2016.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/14/world/europe/italy-births-fertility-europe.html?
hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=image&module=second-columnregion&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0>