ipl-logo

Rhetorical Analysis Of Emma Watson's Speech

1057 Words5 Pages

Emma Watson’s speech at the United Nations, launching the HeForShe campaign, challenges her audience’s views on feminism. The speech captures the misconceptions of men and feminism through a range of effective language techniques. Watson appeals to her audience, members of the United Nations Human Rights Council, by implementing these techniques to confront the value system of her audience, their views and encourage their involvement with the movement.
Feminism is a topical issue within modern-day society, involving political and social movements to achieve rights for women that are equal to those of men. Watson, an influential actress and advocate for women’s rights, was appointed U.N. Women’s Goodwill Ambassador leading up to her speech …show more content…

Watson references an allusion by citing a famous speech by Hilary Clinton, a prominent political figure in America; “In 1995, Hilary Clinton made a famous speech in Beijing about women’s rights...” Although Clinton’s speech was significant for gender-equality, Watson induces emotions of disappointment by reminding the audience of the small achievement which has occurred since. Watson suggests that little has happened due to men feeling unable to participate in gender-equality movements because of the common misconception that feminism is anti-men. She provides evidence to add credibility, “…what stood out for me the most was that only 30 per cent of her audience were male.” She then follows this by confronting the audience with a rhetorical question, “How can we affect change in the world when only half of it is invited or feel welcome to participate in the conversation?” This challenges her audience’s perceptions, allowing them to comprehend that the gender-equality movement is not synonymous with ‘man-hating’ and that this belief must be ended immediately so that gender-equality can follow. In addition, repetition is enforced to emphasise that gender-equality should not be perceived as two opposing sets of ideals. Watson states, “Both men and women should feel free to be sensitive. Both men and women should feel free to be strong.” This confirms that feminism involves everyone, no matter their gender, age or socio-cultural status. The language devices presented by Watson allow her to express that feminism is not anti-men with credibility, confrontation and

Show More
Related
187 Words | 1 Pages

Sidoonie smith and Julia Watson rhetorical situation, is that “people tell stories of their lives through the cultural scripts available to them”. Another situation is the fact people have a discursive practice of how they control the stories they tell about themselves. Claims made are the fact that people don’t really know that much about themselves when writing an autobiography. For this reason Sidoonie smith and Julia Watson explain to the audience how individuals use the concept of agency to tell stories about themselves and ways to do it. Sidoonie smith and Julia Watson use varies contexts of autobiography that is better interpreted and understood.

Read More
364 Words | 2 Pages

At Susan B. Anthony's funeral in 1906, Anna Howard Shaw delivered a eulogy that paid tribute to Anthony's life and legacy as a champion for women's rights. In her speech, Shaw employs a variety of rhetorical devices to convey the message that Anthony's cause of women's rights is a universal cause. One of the rhetorical devices Shaw uses is metaphor. She begins the eulogy by describing the grief and gratitude felt by those in attendance. Shaw says, "Your flags at half-mast tell of a nation's loss, but there are no symbols and no words which can tell the love and sorrow which fill our hearts.

Read More
651 Words | 3 Pages

Rebecca Watson, the speaker, made it clear her purpose was to inform you that while Martin Shkrelli had a huge role in the raising of Daraphim prices, he was not the only one to blame. She blames the entire pharmaceutical community for making it harder for people to access the medicine they need by constantly changing the prices. Watson builds upon her purpose by pulling out more opinions such as: “Homeopathy is bullshit and many chiropractors are dangerous quacks (Watson).” These opinions allows the reader to fully believe she is dislikes and puts blame on the pharmaceutical industry and the people within it. She specifically points out chiropractors which indicates there might have been an issue with one previously that allowed her to draw this conclusion.

Read More
235 Words | 1 Pages

In her recent online article, “Oh, Come On, Men Aren’t Finished,” Cristina Sommers explains that no matter how many times women say that they don’t need men, we actually do, to not only survive but also to thrive. Although in some fields of study women primarily dominate such as in psychology, biology, and veterinary medicine; men still call the shots in many more fields of study, such as computer science, math, and technology. The point the author is trying to get across is that despite the fact that, “we’re living in a society that’s enamored with the “WAW” or “Women are Wonderful” phenomenon,” that men are not going to be obliterated because neither gender would let that happen. Even though well-educated men are not in danger, Sommers

Read More
610 Words | 3 Pages

In an eulogy to former President of the United States, Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, former prime minister of Great Britain, addresses a speech in honor of Reagan. Throughout the eulogy, Thatcher informs Americans all of the amazing work Reagan did during his presidency and how he is a great person. Using examples of the work Reagan did, Thatcher states acknowledges those ideas in order to keep his legacy alive. Thatcher opens and closes her eulogy by directly addresses it to the American citizens in a warm and proud tone.

Read More
410 Words | 2 Pages

Emma Marris uses many types of persuasive elements in her essay “Emma Marris: In Defense of Everglade Pythons”. In her writing she persuades her readers that the pythons should be allowed to be in the everglades since it is not their fault that they are there in the first place. She uses metaphors to relate to the reader and word choice to enhance her writing.

Read More
1664 Words | 7 Pages

Davidson brings up the iPod Experiment at Duke University to show that change is unstoppable because technological advances will soon be intertwining with almost everything as it did with formal education. Duke was an early pioneer in using technology to help in the classroom and to benefit students in their studies. Change is also inevitable when it comes to the subject of women’s rights and their equality to men. For the longest time, women were not considered equal to men and many times, considered to be lower to men, which spread the idea that women should always obey men. However, many women’s rights events have occurred since that idea and the concept of feminism has spread into the old traditions.

Read More
1320 Words | 6 Pages

In “The Destructive Male” by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, rhetoric is employed to persuade the reader or listeners to acknowledge and grant women equal rights. Stanton also creates a tone of zealous outrage and accusation with her use of literary devices such as alliteration and personification. Shortly after the United States Civil War, Elizabeth Cady Stanton delivered her speech at the Women’s Suffrage Convention in 1868 (Bjornlund). Stanton had to appeal to the crowd of men and women, conservatives and liberals, and even government officials by showing how women benefit the world and deserve to have the same opportunities as men to make a difference and have the freedom to vote.

Read More
1563 Words | 7 Pages

Feminism: Viewing feminism from all aspects From the following classic definition of a “feminist” by believing the idea of equality, there is an added responsibility of delivering the idea, convincing people, and helping people realize the occurrence of feminism. Being a feminist by any means is not an easy task. As the idea of feminism is rapidly developing across the globe, it refers to various questions, misconceptions, and sometimes extreme detestation directed towards the feminists. Society still doesn’t understand the essence of feminism, and the true meaning of it. Some believe that a feminist fight for women's equality, while others believe that women should be able to fulfill their highest potential.

Read More
984 Words | 4 Pages

Hillary Rodham Clinton delivered her speech “Women’s Rights are Human Rights” September 5, 1995 while speaking at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China with the intent to educate and spread awareness in regards to the rights and treatment of women around the world, while encouraging women to take initiative and highlight the potential women have if presented with the opportunity of equality. Early in Clinton’s speech, she uses the power of ethos to establish her credibility and continues to build upon it throughout, bringing attention to the fact she has had years of experience fighting for change among people of all kinds. Clinton convinces listeners that she has made women’s rights a priority in her life

Read More
725 Words | 3 Pages

In her speech, Elizabeth Glaser convinces people and leaders in America that they need to acknowledge and respect the real dangers of AIDS and the victims that have it. Glaser effectively uses ethos, repetition, and tone to convey this message to the audience. Elizabeth Glaser, the woman who brought awareness of AIDS, takes a stance based on her own experience with AIDS. In order to help the audience to believe her, at the beginning of her speech, Glaser tells the audience that she “Had unknowingly passed it to [her] daughter, Ariel, through [her] breast milk, and [her] son, Jake, in utero”. In order to build Elizabeth Glaser’s ethos, Glaser talks about how she and her children aren’t the “typical” or “expected” people to contract AIDS.

Read More
722 Words | 3 Pages

Margaret Thatcher, the British Prime Minister at the time, gave a eulogy to the grieving American people in honor of the late Ronald Reagan on June 11th, 2004. In her speech, Thatcher used rhetorical techniques to show the strength and principles of Reagan and project those values onto the American people. To project the ideas of strength and firm ideals, Thatcher used repetition, elevated syntax and the tone of optimism and sincerity to convey her message. In the beginning of the speech, Thatcher used repetition to show what Reagan had accomplished in his lifetime.

Read More
1301 Words | 6 Pages

Gender equality has been a worldwide issue for many years now. Different figures, such as Emma Watson, have been educating society on this ever-so-present issue. Emma Watson has been using her platform to help teach and make known this topic to people, specifically by putting her time and into her feminism campaign, ‘HeForShe’, and giving speeches on the topic. Emma Watson uses the techniques of ethos and pathos to convey her purpose. Emma Watson uses ethos to illustrate her ideas effectively and show herself as credible.

Read More
791 Words | 4 Pages

Rebecca West once said, “I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat”; feminism and other social issues are fundamental to literature, with them commonly being a driving force behind both modern and classic works of fiction. Feminism is everywhere, with women still fighting for gender equality in modern day Britain as demonstrated through Emma Watson’s United Nations speech which was broadcasted in September of 2014 where she differentiates feminism from ‘man-hating’. Feminism has developed considerably over time as general attitudes have been swayed through literature, political movements and women’s portrayal of themselves. In 1847, Charlotte Bronte released her novel ‘Jane Eyre’ which was viewed as very radical for its time as Bronte uses Jane to exhibit her resentment towards society. Jane is presented as a morally strong, determined character who, when she falls in love, embraces the notion instead of the label and profits which are associated with it; she states that she “cares for [her]self” and that “more unsustained [she is], the more [she] will respect [her]self” as she is not tempted away from her self-respect.

Read More
1136 Words | 5 Pages

Introduction Hook: Since the beginning of time, the existence of women and men has been undeniably considered as one of the integral factors that forms our society as it is today. Despite their parallel existence and contribution to the growth of the society, it was considered that women were not treated equal to men both in domestic and working circumstances, leading to a wave of movements demanding equal rights for women, known as feminism. Despite its success in claiming benefits for mistreated women in the past, recent feminism actions and point of views have gone above their original purpose, and created negative impacts and false mindset as its consequences, 2. Credibility I have done some in-depth research about this matter to prepare for the speech, and I myself do not stand for contemporary feminist. 3.

Read More

More about Rhetorical Analysis Of Emma Watson's Speech

Related Topics

Open Document