Ehrlich’s purpose in the essay, About Men, is to reveal a different side of cowboys from the one we as a society are used to. She wishes to show a soft side of the hardened nomad portrayed by the movies. Her main goal is for the reader to pocket a different perspective from the one that is spoon fed to anyone who watched those Wild West movies.
A strategy that Ehrlich uses to develop this new view on the pioneers of the western United States is ethos. She shows the reader her experience when she mentions “feeling lonely for Wyoming,” suggesting knowledge in that area. Ehrlich also suggest that she hung out with the men herself when she says “(t)he cowboys I was sitting with laughed in agreement.” She uses her credit as a native Wyomingite and former cowgirl to provide a stable ground for the reader to build on as they glean her evidence from the essay.
I agree with Ehrlich’s point in the essay because I know that stereotypes are never applicable to everyone in a specific group anyway. I know plenty of people who have defied stereotypes. I’m a smart blonde, I have a black friend who can’t dance, and I have an Asian friend who doesn’t get A’s in every class. I know so many people who defy stereotypes so this cowboy thing is quite believable.
California Creative Writer 