The Rhetoric used in “Gender Equality Is Your Issue Too”
After a little more than a month that she was appointed a Goodwill Ambassador for U.N. Women, Emma Watson, best known for playing the character of Hermione Granger in the 'Harry Potter' film franchise, gave a powerful and emotional speech at the U.N. Headquarters where she launched the HeForShe campaign. It was a personal reflection on feminism, gender, equality, and activism. She revitalizes the feminist movement with this successful speech, verifying her credibility, appealing to the emotions of viewers and giving statistics and facts that reinforce her argument. The speech went viral immediately after launched online.
The context of this speech is a time where the genders are most
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She says, “I was appointed six months ago and the more I have spoken about feminism the more I have realized that fighting for women’s rights has too often become synonymous with man-hating. If there is one thing I know for certain, it is that this has to stop (Watson).” Additionally, the fact that she is a celebrity, who worked hard since she was just a little girl, gives Watson likeability and respect. Later, the speech becomes more inspirational when she says "You might think, ‘Who is this Harry Potter girl? What is she doing at the U.N.?’ And it’s a good question I’ve been asking myself the same thing." Introducing her self-doubt, at the same time shows that the cause means a lot to …show more content…
Watson allows the speech to be persuasive to her audiences by expressing her genuine feelings. She helps herself to engage the public, sprinkling many personal histories, recalling times when she felt sexualized and faced inferior expectations because she was young and girl or when she says "When I was 8, I was confused for being called bossy because I wanted to direct the plays that we would put on for our parents, but the boys were not." Emma speaks directly to listeners and uses ‘you’, ‘me’, ‘us, and ‘we’ as another way to engage the audience by speaking directly to them instead of doing it impersonally. When the issue is personified, it allows intensifying the sympathy and compassion felt by the audience to the speaker. When Watson asked why “feminism is an uncomfortable word” allows the public to reflect upon themselves. Also when she says “Apparently I am among the ranks of women whose expressions are seen as too strong, too aggressive, isolating, anti-men and, unattractive. Why is the word such an uncomfortable one? (Watson)” use self-reflection and she is also using Pathos. She shows how women who fight for their rights often be seen as extremists who go against
A short speech from a politician during the Civil Rights era is “For the Equal Rights Amendment”, delivered by Shirley Chisholm. In this speech, Chisholm uses ethos, pathos, and logos to argue her point of equal rights. An example of ethos that could be found in the speech is when Chisholm says “The Constitution they wrote was designed to protect the rights of white, male citizens. As there were no black Founding Fathers, there were no founding mothers -- a great pity, on both counts. It is not too late to complete the work they left undone. Today, here, we should start to do so.” This would serve as an example of ethos because Chisholm is showing creditably by mentioning why the Constitution was wrote. Additionally, she challenges what the
It amazes me how a few decades ago can seem like a whole different world. A course of time can impact our lives more than we know it. In the article, A Day Without Feminism by Jennifer Boumgoidnei and Amy Richntds, both of these authors created this piece to inform their audience that although women have gained more rights over time, there was still more progress to be made. These authors gave many examples of how life for women had been, the obstacles they had to overcome, and the laws women had to break for equality.
Women’s rights pioneer, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, in her speech, The Destructive Male, expresses her feelings about Women's suffrage in 1868, and brought to light the misconception that women are not equal to man and imply that men bring more destruction than restoration.
She uses strong words to evolve her speech. “We must respect the choices that each woman makes for herself”,” Every women deserves”. When she uses these words(respect and deserves) the message is clear. Clinton is fighting for women rights, she takes this topic in a serious way. It is a commitment she has and wants everyone to listen.
I chose Emma Watson’s speech at the UN about feminism because I had previously watched a clip on facebook and it stuck with me. Watson uses arguments to inform and to inspire as well as using all three of pathos, logos, and ethos. In the speech, Watson asks men to understand that gender inequality is their issue as well.
...women has escalated to an all-time high. Hillary Clinton’s speech “Women’s Rights are Human Rights” targets this growing problem and by portraying a purpose, style and language, and different appeals to the audience effectively.
Overall, Hillary Rodham Clinton gave a convincing speech on women’s rights at the U.N. World Conference by using the key rhetorical techniques ethos, pathos, logos, and anaphora’s. The use of these techniques helped the audience believe in the cause of which Clinton was speaking about, sympathize for situations females were being put through, and working to strive towards equal rights for everyone. Clinton used the same stance throughout her speech and raised her voice at points in her speech that needed
Hillary Rodham Clinton is a well-recognized woman in the United States. Her great contribution as Secretary of State impacted people’s lives. One of many remarkable speeches Clinton gave was the “The Women Rights Speech” on the 4th World Conference on Women Plenary Session, where she used strong words and emotions to appeal the audience. Even though the speech talked about women rights, she wanted everyone including men and children to listen and take action. Her use of ethos, logos and pathos throughout the speech helped people understand women live in a world where they suffer discrimination, and she proposes solutions to solve the issue.
Although men are definitely crucial to fixing the problem, “the young [women] are prominent in most revolutions” (Evans 165-166). It is very important for women to stand up for equality through their actions not just their words. That means pushing back on the expectations some men put on them and proving they are just as independent and capable as men. It is equally important for men to be advocates for gender equality because change will not happen if we do not keep our minds open. Women can protect as many times as they wish but if men do not acknowledge their actions, equality is impossible to achieve. It is difficult to understand why people discriminate based on gender because we’re all the same, we’re all human, gender does not define who you are or what you are capable of doing. Once every man comes to that realization, we will all be equal and there will be no gender roles or standards. In Emma Watson’s HeForShe campaign speech at the United Nations, she explains the importance of involving men in the movement because “gender equality is [their] issue too” (Watson). She believes if men do not have to be aggressive in order to be accepted, women will not feel compelled to be submissive in compliance. Many problems related to gender inequality impacting women specifically are caused by the social standards placed on men so involving men in the movement is unquestionably important, as Watson emphasizes in her entire
...tivating for the advancement of women, without realizing they were doing so. She also claims that the term "feminist" changes over time, to become appropriate for how one would like to apply it.
Feminism and the right to equality has been a long and arduous struggle for women before the Civil Rights Act. The Feminine Mystique sparked a change, questioning society, which continues today as women fight for equal treatment regardless of laws that claim for their protection. Feminists will continue to fight for the day where women will be treated as equals, where there will be no gender bias, and for the day when a woman can state her mind, just as her male counterpart, without being called an uptight
During her early life, Hillary Clinton learned that a huge problem across the globe was gender inequality. Women and men were not equal. Men were making more money than women for the same jobs. She believed she could change this. On September 5, 1995 Hillary Clinton gave a speech at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women. Clinton uses powerful rhetoric in order to create an air of sympathy for women among her audience. She is hoping to make the world become more aware of the inequalities women face daily while also making them feel ashamed for their previous actions of discriminating women, which would cause them to change their ways. She uses her speech “Women’s Rights Are Human Rights” to create awareness of the discrimination
Interdiscursivity, discursive and social practices Ernestine L. Rose delivered her speech at the Second National Woman’s Rights Convention in Worcester on 15 October 1851. It was the first convention during which American feminists received communicates from their European counterparts and thus acknowledged the movement’s expansion in other parts of the world. Yet, the Conference was deeply rooted in the American values as expressed in the Declaration of Independence. The Convention was held eight times more, the last time in 1860. It later resumed in 1863 as the First Woman’s National Loyal League Convention.
Renowned British actress and activist for the feminist movement, Emma Watson, in her speech to the United Nations, “HeForShe,” argues that gender discrimination is a plague to human civilization. Watson’s purpose is to sway the audience that gender inequality has to come to an end, with the support of men and women as advocates for egalitarianism. Additionally, she enlightens the audience that the problem originated from political affairs, the economy, and social disparity. Watson creates a compassionate tone in order to convey men, specifically those who negatively perceived feminism or did not think that feminist issues affected them. Nevertheless, Watson’s speech is ineffectively persuasive due to the poor description she formulated
Women have fought through torture, blood, sweat, and tears to help women stand strong in our