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Jonathan Johnson

Professor Granillo

English 103

24 October 2019

Essay #1 Draft

The celebratory cake is a common and important part of the way people celebrate in the

modern era. From birthday parties to graduations, a cake of some kind makes an appearance.

These cakes are often more than just a delicious dessert, they can shine a light on certain social

and cultural beliefs through presentation. A rhetorical and semiotic analysis of these celebratory

cakes can provide insight into the social views and beliefs. For this analysis, Sweet Mary’s

“Wheels or Heels” cake is the cake that will be used as an example. Through varying symbols

and rhetoric, Sweet Mary’s “Wheels or Heels” cake design pushes the concept of a two-gender

system, however, gender is a part of the social constructs and is not limited to two genders. The

cake design is based mostly around pathos and ethos appeals, with logos being poorly

implemented due to the presence of a false dilemma fallacy. These appeals highlight how gender

norming has harmed large groups of people, mostly through issues in mental health, and should

not be celebrated.

Sweet Mary’s “Wheels or Heels” cake, which will be the example cake, is meant to

celebrate the reveal of a baby’s gender at some sort of gender reveal party. The cake is single

tiered with the text “Wheels or Heels” on top with wheels in blue coloring and heels in pink

coloring. Near the text, is a 3d depiction of heels with pink bow ties on them and wheels for a
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truck of some sort. There are multiple blue hearts on the top of the cake around the wheels and

heels depictions. On the side of the cake are zigzag lines alternating black and white with little

blue and pink dots on the white lines alternating as well. The colors that stand out the most on

the cake are the blue and pink coloring with the subtext that pink is for girl and blue is for boy as

demonstrated by the coloring of the text. It is assumed that the audience believes in a two-gender

system, however description on how effective any argument present in the cake designs is

toward those that do not will be included. It is also assumed that this is being served at some sort

of gathering and there is at least one individual about to reveal the gender of an unborn child.

There are two things to briefly discuss before analyzing cake, why and how. In Rachael

Lussos “Have Your Epideictic Rhetoric, and Eat It, Too” the explanation of epideictic rhetoric

provides the reason why. Lussos describes epideictic rhetoric and how it “refers to current events

and seeks agreement about their honorable or dishonorable nature” before explaining that since

epideictic rhetoric deals with current events and celebratory cakes deal with current events, there

is epideictic rhetoric present in celebratory cakes (28-29). Lussos demonstrates the importance in

analyzing the different elements present on a celebratory cake. All messages should be

considered, whether it is on cake or not. In In ​The World Is A Text ​by Jonathan Silverman and

Dean Rader it is explained how to analyze the cake. Through Semiotics, which involves looking

out for signifiers, an “ object that exists”, and the signified or “what [the signifier] means” cake

can be analyzed without large amounts of text (Silverman and Rader 14). The cake in the

example has plenty of things to look at that qualify as signifiers. The goal is to take those

signifiers and find the signified meanings and find how that affects rhetoric.
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Pathos, out of the three appeals, is often most tailored for the chosen audience. In ​The

Mercury Reader​ by Maren Hyer, it is stated that pathos is “the emotional appeal to an

audience”(7). Pathos is based around the use of human emotion to make the audience invested.

The pathos appeal can be used manipulatively, however, in these cake designs it is used more to

heighten feelings around the celebration. The cake presents bright colors and blue hearts as

symbols to display the gender reveal message while presenting a positive feeling (“Wheels or

Heels”). Heart symbols are commonly used to symbolize love, affection, and happiness or joy at

the prospect of something. The cake designs are meant to appeal to love and happiness derived

from love. The heart designs constitute the pathos appeal, and are ultimately an effective and

clear message to the audience. The cake and the heart symbol on the cake play on the importance

of birth in society. The cake uses the heart to portray the general joy that those awaiting a new

child may feel, while also celebrating said act.

Ethos is an appeal based on building up the speakers connection with the audience. Hyer

states that the ethos appeal is “the ethical appeal to an audience” with the intent to build trust (6).

So in order to appeal strongly with ethos the speaker must build up authority and trust with the

audience. The “Wheels or Heels” cake makes an ethical connection to the audience by presenting

simple symbols in the depiction of wheels and heels. The wheels and heels on the cake signify

boy and girl to common audiences, which is a basic understanding yet it makes the audience feel

that there is understanding. The shared understanding, based around both social beliefs in gender

binaries and the recognition of the gender reveal party, builds trust. The designs on the cake

imposes the concept of a two-gender system, appealing to the audience’s, potentially, shared

belief. The message shown demonstrates how society currently views the gender system.
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Logos is not a very strong element of the “Wheels or Heels” cake design. Disregarding

the fact that having a kid is not often a logic-based decision, the logic presented in the cake

design does not appeal so generally as the other appeals present. According to Hyer, logos is the

“appeal to fact, logic and reason” (8). So the logos appeal should be based on some sort of

evidence or throughout reasoning. It is hard to give evidence in a visual argument so the logos

appeal is based on reasoning. The important symbols that contribute to the reasoning are the

signifiers, wheels and heels, centrally presented on the cake (Sweet Mary’s). The signifiers

present a logic that goes that essentially says that since there are two sexes there must only be

two genders as well, one for each sex. It is an interpretation based on what is commonly seen,

not based on actual empirical evidence. The cake presents this logic in the form of wheels and

blue for boys while heels and pink is for girls. The social belief presented is that of a gender

binary. The appeal is used to push the message that one must fall in the boy or girl category for

gender.

The fallacy immediately present in the design is a False Dilemma, although there are

certainly others. A False dilemma is a fallacy that assumes that there are two opposite sides, not

allowing for options in between those opposites (Hyer 10). As previously stated, the cake

presents the belief in a gender binary in the form of wheels and heels (Sweet Mary’s). The

fallacy in this context may greatly detract from the audience's perception of the message

presented. For those that believe in a gender binary, the fallacy may assist in pushing the overall

message presented. The fallacy could, however, be offensive to onlookers who believe in more

than two genders or do not belong in the binary. So the overall outcome of the fallacy cannot be

perfectly predicted and can have many different outcomes in audience response. The audience
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chosen is the key to how the fallacy affects the presentation of the cake, and without information

on the audience, an accurate prediction cannot be made.

The pathos and ethos presented in the signifiers on the cake was effective, but a false

dilemma fallacy presents a potential issue in the logic appeal. By rhetorically and semiotically

evaluating the Sweet Mary’s “Wheels or Heels” cake it is evident the design pushes the concept

of a two-gender system despite the potential for more genders. The pathos appeal was based on

color and heart symbolism and was done excellently. Ethos was based on understanding, which

is often effective and certainly the case with the design. Again, logos is lacking, which would not

mean much if not for the fallacy present which could upset some individuals at the gathering, if

any were present. There should be a change in how society views gender, and it requires action

and change of thought in all people, not just some. It is detrimental to those who fall outside the

gender norm and will continue to be harmful until it is changed.

Works cited

Hyer, Maren “Introduction To Critical Thinking And Analysis”. ​The Mercury Reader,​ Pearson

Custom Publishing, 2005.

Kalia, Soma. “Colour and Its Effects in Interior Environment: a Review .” ​International Journal

of Advanced Research in Science and Technology ​, 7 Oct. 2013, pp. 106–109.

Lussos, Rachel “Have Your Epideictic Rhetoric, and Eat It, Too”. ​Journal of Multimodal

Rhetorics, ​Spring 2018, George Mason University.

Silverman, Jonathan, and Dean Rader. ​The World Is a Text: Writing about Visual and Popular

Culture​. Broadview Press, 2018.