The Onion: Man Reserving Judgement On Best Actress Nominees Until Looking at all 5 Pictures

This article in the satirical news website, The Onion, tells of how “Kurt Holden told reporters Thursday that he would postpone any judgments on the best actress Oscar nominees until he looked at all five pictures.” The article goes on to say things like how this man from Ohio rejected Reese Witherspoon for his choice of best actress because he got bored of looking at her picture after a few seconds. Many rhetorical techniques were used in this article like irony and hyperbole. The message the onion is trying to get across is how ridiculous people would sound if they said these kind of things out loud. This hyperbole is there to merely exaggerate what is already happening today- people subconsciously, if not on purpose, get impressions of people by how they look. By using the faceless, non recognizable man by the name of Kurt Holden, he serves as a symbol for our society who base talent off of looks. It’s ironic though, because although this man is comfortable enough rating women on how they look, we never see what he looks like, which is a very accurate portrayal of this real life issue. Men expect women to be flawless, yet they aren’t critical of what them, or other men look like for that matter.