Since the content of the texts is about the viewing of women in a cartoon move the article also appeals to women's rights activists, students (college level and up), and other film critics. Because the article was published in 1993 in and anthology of film criticism called Film Theory Goes to the Movies, many of the original audience probably were readers interested in film. .
The author is a professor of English whose primary research is in film criticism. So her knowledge does happen to lie in the field she is writing about. But film criticism is just personal opinions from people who have seen a lot of cinematography. So the authors" credibility for this article must come from more than just her education background in order for her argument to sway the reader, it must rely on pathos and logos. .
In order to draw the reader in to her article she creates a startling and intriguing title by using the words "Bodily Mutilation" and the little mermaid in the same line. This sparks the readers" curiosity for a closer look. She then starts the text by quoting lines from Aristotle and from the original Hans Christian Anderson story of The Little Mermaid, both are very demeaning toward women, which sparks the readers emotion of anger and more curiosity. Then, in the authors introductory paragraphs, she writes "The critical methodology derives from many sources, including Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalysis along with semiotics (the study of sign systems), structuralism and Marxism, psychoanalysis is an invaluable aid in understanding just what a film may be "working through"-(White, 317), giving very good background into which logical research sources she uses to form her conclusions and briefly tells the reader her use of logos in the text. .
Her layout of the text, the way she orders her text, is well thought out in its logic. After her introduction in which she explains her methodology and states her thesis twice in different ways, the author then goes back in the past to the origination of the mythology of the mermaid.
