Author Sophie Gilbert begins the piece with a summary of the main villain in the Season 4 Premiere of American Horror Story: a clown named Twisty. She then proceeds to investigate where the irrational fear of clowns — coulrophobia — and the depiction of them as evil beings originated from. Two of the characteristics that may contribute to the common mistrust and wariness towards clowns are their unpredictable nature and their makeup. Clowns and jesters have always been known to disregard the accepted norms of society; they throw pies, squirt water, make fools of themselves. Seeing them break the rules of common sense makes readers wonder what other boundaries they'll cross. Also, their makeup — bright, fixed smiles that hide what expression is underneath — leads us to wonder "what's behind the mask." Gilbert believes that the first instance that traumatized people regarding clowns could be the report of John Wayne Gacy, clown by day, murderer by night. She then lists other examples that increasingly villified the image of clowns; Edgar Allan Poe's court jester who lit the king on fire, Stephen King's Pennywise the Clown in "It," Jack Nicholson as the Joker, among others. To Sophia Gilbert, there is only one place where clowns can still be appreciated and useful, and that is in children's hospitals, where studies have shown that clowns actually calm patients down.
Sophia Gilber's article is structured such that she uses historical examples involving clowns to support each of her points. This is a very effective way of convincing the reader of her argument. However, by doing so, her examples no longer follow a chronological order, which in the case of this article may leave the reader confused, particularly when Gilbert lists the growing number of "evil" clowns. Once past this, her article is very strongly built, and her supprting examples are actually used very well. She cites several studies and other writers, which add to the credibility of her piece, and she also makes several appeals to subjectivity and emotion, getting the reader to associate with her argumentation. These techniques do a good job of keeping the reader interested, as well as bringing unity to the piece. Overall a very good article, and an interesting analysis on a popular subject.
http://m.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2014/10/how-clowns-became-terrifying/381306/
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