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Value and criterion in a Lincoln-Douglas debate?
I am supposed to be debating against the resolution "Beauty Pageants are demoralizing to the modern woman." Could you explain what the value and criterion mean and give suggestions I could use in this situation? I don't understand how the criterion should relate to the value.
Happy Abraham's Lincoln's 200th Birthday!
I'm going to be honest with you, the resolution you're debating is a little difficult to analyze and give valid suggestions for, but I'll try.
Alright. So here's how it's broken down.
Your Value and Value-Criterion (or just Criterion) are what your framework for your case is. They give the judge a way to look at the resolution, and at your case.
A Value is something of high importance like Life. Contrary to popular belief Justice doesn't work as a value because of the fact that it's very vague, along with other things.
A Value is what your case is ultimately working to achieve. In the case of this resolution, on the Negative you could use something that whoever is judging your round may see a little strangely. You could advocate that by negating we uphold Life because we encourage people to avoid bad eating habits, so they're healthier.
A criterion is what you use to achieve your value. Say I value life on the negative of your resolution. A good criterion would be that of "encouraging the pursuit of healthy habits". By encouraging the pursuit of healthy habits, you would ultimately lead to healthier people, resulting in less death. Therefore more life is achieved.
However you'd need to be careful as someone could always state that many models are anorexic and set an unfair standard for other women. CAUSING the eating disorders like anorexia which lead to unhealthy lives, therefore you don't achieve your value.
Now, if your opponent was valuing something such as Individuality you could combat that entire attack easily. By stating the fact that if we didn't live in an egotistical world revolving around the appreciation of ourselves, we wouldn't have eating disorders to begin with. You can also argue something stating that an impact of having anorexic women is non-unique, because they're going to have anorexia either way. Either from watching a fashion show or seeing a skinny woman on the street.
So the Value is what your case aims to achieve, your criterion is a weighing mechanism used to achieve your value. On another note, make sure your criterion is achievable by both sides of the resolution, otherwise it's against the spirit of debate because it leaves no room to debate if both sides cannot achieve it.
Both sides have their own value and criterion, but it's still abusive to have a criterion that the other side can't attain. An example would be say if the resolution was "Chocolate is better than vanilla". If your Value is taste and your criterion is chocolate, you have an abusive criterion as vanilla can never become chocolate. It has to be equally attainable.
As for the affirmative. You could use the exact same value and criterion I gave above. You would argue that these Beauty Pageants cause women to feel insecure about themselves and thus lead to eating disorders and even depression.
If someone attacks that by stating that people will feel insecure either way (like seeing a skinny woman on the street) it's easy to respond to.Beauty pageants get a lot of publicity from the media and many are televised, reaching MORE women. Therefore more women can be susceptible.
When you attack your opponent's Value and Criterion make sure to state why yours is of more importance. If you agree on Values and/or Criteria then you can simply argue why you achieve it better. Also ALWAYS MAKE SURE TO ATTACK YOUR OPPONENT'S VALUE AND CRITERION IN YOUR FIRST REBUTTAL SPEECH. That's your first speech if you're Negative, and your second if you're on the Affirmative. If you don't attack it, you've accepted their standards for the round. This will almost always result in a loss if your opponent's value and criterion work to uphold something your case doesn't.
Always link your arguments to your criterion, and ultimately to your value. If you have as a contention on the affirmative "Beauty Pageants make women depressed and cause eating disorders" then to link that to your criterion state that "Eating disorders lead to permanent damage, and even death in an individual. Depression can lead to eating disorders, and even suicide. So we're no longer pursuing healthy habits, therefore we're no longer upholding the paramount value of life because people would be dying from eating disorders, and from depression-related suicide caused simply by the Beauty Pageants."
I hope I've helped a bit. If you've got anymore questions feel free to ask.
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