“Women are [seen as] the “beautiful” sex. . . women are dependent and inferior” (Sontag 387). He uses this vivid language to connect with his reader's emotions, this is called pathos. Sontag uses many different adjectives to describe how society interprets the word “beautiful.” When you think of the word beautiful, very often the words “delicate”, “graceful” or “cute” also come to mind. Very rarely is the word beautiful associated with “strong”, “independent” or “powerful”. This is because the word beautiful has been reserved only for women, and women are generally seen as nothing more than fragile. Through the use of pathos, Sontag makes each reader feel how weak the world perceives her. He uses strong words, like “inferior,” to make his readers feel and further understand how upsetting this issue can be. Men are instead called “handsome,” “handsome is the male equivalent of – and the refusal of – a compliment that has accumulated certain humiliating overtones, being reserved only for women” (Sontag, 387). Beautiful is a synonym of the word beautiful, yet society sees them with completely different meanings. Beautiful is associated with power, independence and strength simply because we have reserved this word for men. But why can't it be used in the same way?