A Rhetorical Analysis Of Justin Baldoni's Ted Talk

To start off the new year, in January of 2018, a new “Ted Talk” was posted, perhaps to persuade its audience to add another resolution to their list. Justin Baldoni, famous actor, talks about,” Why I’m done trying to be ‘man enough’”. Justin discusses his journey of discovering that he has lived his life wrongly and in shame due to not expressing how he truly is because of the pressure society has put on him to be “masculine”. Justin uses personal stories, credibility, and body language to ensure his speech is effective to his audience. Along with other techniques, I will be analyzing the organization and delivery of Justin’s speech.
To begin with, Justin’s introduction to the speech starts off with his personal background information, side

by side with pictures as the first piece of evidence. Justin provides pictures with the audience, making him seem manly due to all the pictures showing off his muscular physique. By speaking of himself first and making it personal, this builds his credibility, which I will go more in depth to explain late on. He then transitions to the roles he has played as an actor, and goes on to say, “Every Time I got one of these roles, I was surprised, because most of the men I played oozed machismo, charisma and power, and when I look in the mirror, that’s just not how I see myself.” This introduction is effective because Justin uses himself as a hook, starting his speech off by displaying his vulnerabilities, and making it personal, intriguing the audience to continue to listen.

As Justin continues his speech, his transitions are clear and evident, from speaking about himself, to his father and childhood, to displaying his Instagram experiment, he never loses the audience’s focus. Justin’s use of evidence in his speech varied, from visual aids, to anecdotes, photos, quotes, and even the logos appeal. Justin manages to squeeze in a use of the logos appeal, by displaying a pie graph that depicts the statistics of the demographic he attracted the most via his initial Instagram posts. He goes on to explain this demographic as being a majority of females between the ages of 18-34 years of age. Justin’s use of logos was effective in being used as hard evidence, making it clear to the audience that he is speaking the truth of his issue. His evidence supported his

claim, that his posts appealed more to women because men view emotions and public displays of affection as a feminine characteristic. When Justin started to post “manly” items, such as his meal plan, videos of him working out, he had a spike in followers of men. Justin explains, “And then, out of the blue for the first time in my career, a male fitness magazine called me, and they said they wanted to honor me as one of their game-changers.” Justin admits he did not change his game or his life, instead he conformed to the masculine stereotype, and gained popularity because of it, adding the perfect puzzle piece to finish his giant picture. To conclude his speech, Justin uses a quote, and specifically addresses women, men, and parents upon the issue of masculinity. He also goes back to his anecdote of his childhood, and he explains, “The resentment I had towards my dad, I now realize had nothing to do with him. It had everything to do with me and my longing to be accepted… he did teach me how to use my heart, and to me that makes him more a man than anything.” These last words making his conclusion effective, proving to the audience he became self aware of his own problems of dealing with masculinity publicly, and others can do the same.
In addition to his organization, Justin’s delivery of his speech built off of his body language and establishing his credibility.

Within his introduction, Justin is builds his credibility by addressing his own personal issue, and then goes in to talk about how much this is an issue on a global scale that a various number of men face today in society. Although he explains his vulnerability many times, Justin’s body language shows the audience he is confident in his insecurities and vulnerabilities. It can be seen throughout his speech, that he consistently makes eye contact with the audience members, allowing for a deeper and more sensible connection to the audience. This proves his speech is genuine, hooking the audience to continue to listen to him even more. Simultaneously, his facial expressions always linked up perfectly to the tone of his voice and the words he had to say. Even towards his conclusion, it was clear how emotional Justin was becoming, proving how passionate he is about the issue he is addressing. In allowing himself to be emotional on stage, he was effective with his use of voice and facial expression, being himself, not holding any piece of him or his story

back.
Generally speaking, Justin’s speech was clear, organized, and genuine. Although, he could improve on some aspects of his speech, such as, his body movement. Justin did give a solid amount of variation between his tone of voice, and facial expressions, but failed to use his body more in his delivery. Advice I would give to the speaker would be to utilize the size of the stage, it would have engaged the audience members on the outskirts of the stage more, and proven his passion towards wanting everyone to hear his story and learn from his own mistakes. Along with this, I think Justin could have used interviews or perhaps a video presentation of the press asking him questions about his body, or his masculinity displayed on screen. In doing so, it would provide more logos to his speech and prove to his audience that it is not only ordinary men and women who stimulate this issue, but it is the media that creates these masculine stereotypes.
To conclude, “Ted Talks” allow for various speakers to address a worldwide audience by posting their speeches online, which often go viral. Justin Baldoni is another “Ted Talk” speaker who uses his popularity to explore and fight against the masculine stereotypes, as he admits he is a victim and a suspect in choosing his masculinity over his personality. Justin Baldoni’s speech, “Why I’m done trying to be man enough” is thoughtfully organized, from beginning to end, his speech is filled with meaningful gestures, smooth transitions, and hard evidence, making his delivery effective.