Emma Watson Speech On Gender Equality

She is one of the world’s most famous feminists in the twenty-first century. Since the age of eight, Watson has experienced gender-based assumptions that prepare her for a life of ridicule and degrading. She incorporates habit one in her life at the age of 14 when the press would start to sexualize her. Living a proactive life, her “expressions are seen as too strong, too aggressive, isolating, anti-men, and unattractive” (qtd. in Watson 1). In her speech, she describes what her goals are and what her rights should be. Watson began her journey with the end in mind, similar to the lesson habit two teaches. Her goal is to have equal rights for women and men

Watson uses the rhetorical appeal of ethos and pathos to convince her audience to fight against gender inequality by joining her campaign, HeForShe.

Will Rogers the famous Vaudeville performer once stated, “We will never have true civilization until we have learned to recognize the rights of others”. Rogers’ statement is a very intelligent one; equal rights for all people is the next big step for humanity. Susan Shaw states in her book Women’s Voices Feminist Visions, “Feminism, of course, affirms and works to maintain difference; it merely asks that these differences be valued equally”. Feminism seeks to create equality amongst men and women, this means all women regardless of race, ethnicity, class, or sexuality deserve equal rights. Therefore, LGBT, race, ethnicity, transgender, and reproductive rights are issues of concern to women’s rights activists. Despite the post-feminist myth that equality has been reached, there are still multiple contemporary issues which deserve feminist attention. Violence against women, economic inequality, and social construction of gender, the body, and sexuality are all issues present in modern society which are of concern to women’s rights activists. Although it takes time, progress is being made toward total equality thanks to education and activist groups which raise awareness about inequality in the United States as well as around the world. Feminism is an ideology which aims to create a world without inequality, specifically gender inequality. Therefore, absolute equality is the central issue for contemporary feminist advocates.

Feminism has become an ugly word. Some say it does not even live up to its definition anymore. However, the definition remains unchanged in the pages of history. Webster’s Third New International Dictionary’s definition of Feminism reads, “The theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes.” If one digs deep into this definition, beyond the surface of society’s view on feminism today, one can see that feminism would benefit both sexes. The true ideals of feminism break down gender roles, thus benefitting men, women and future generations.

Feminism- The value of women and a woman-centered perspective and the advocacy of social, political, and economic equality for both women and men

We choose to follow the crowd, rarely does anyone dare to be different. Feminism has been a problem not just within one country but within the whole orbiting globe. Emma Watson believes that the world can change; men and women can become united and treated as equals.

Her extrinsic ethos is strong. As a well-educated woman who has been world-widely famous for starring in Harry Potter, she has been dedicating her efforts towards the empowerment of young women and also succeeds in confirming her credibility to her audience through siting experiences she has endured relating to the gender-equality issue at hand. Moreover, the audience’s response and expectation should not be neglected during writing. At first glance, it seems that the audience are women who is always considered as disadvantaged group and Emma spoke for them and encouraged them to seek gender equality. But, it is not true. As the campaign’s name suggests, Emma’s speech with the emotional and informal tone and language is to divert public attention and persuade males to be awareness of the importance of getting male involved in helping to end gender

Watson bolsters support for feminism by providing personal examples. At one point in her speech, she says, “you might be thinking who is this harry potter girl and what is she doing speaking at the UN.. all I know is that i care about this problem.” Through the use of personal instances and experiences, Watson creates an emotional bridge with the listeners and uses it to help spark empathy inside of them. This further

When looking Southern’s video the aimed to destroy feminism and the stigma attached to third wave feminism is a clear motive. Southern starts her video with a strong but intimidating rhetorical question “If feminism is a movement for equality why don’t we see squad representation of both genders issues?”. This not only shocks the audience but also intrigues them explore the antifeminist argument. Watson’s transcript explores and expresses the unfair stereotypes that females and males have to endure on a frequent basis. Watson uses rhetorical questions in her speech “In a country that has achieved marriage equality, shouldn’t gender equality be next?’“. As the rhetorical question was stated at the end of the transcript it is a powerful solid

If you want change just like this “Harry Potter girl” you have to follow her guidance in the speech and be the HeforSHe, which means exactly as you would think, she wants men (he) to be the voice for women (she) (Watson). By doing this it will fix both problems in gender equality and will get us closer to equality. A rhetorical strategy that jumped out to me was repetition she repeated the phrase “if not me, who? If not now, when (Watson)?” She repeated this a few times, and I believe this was very effective in her speech, and really makes the audience think about her appeal.

The parting words of Watson’s speech are meant to encourage the audience the step up and do something first hand about the issue. Also, the parting words are meant to express how important everyone’s role is in fighting against gender

This shows the extent of the damage gender roles can cause. Women are free to express their emotions; therefore, men should be too. Watson continues with “I’ve seen men made fragile and insecure by a distorted sense of what

Watson speaks through knowledge, historical, scientific, utilitarian and political views to the audience to deliver a strong and personal message on the word feminism, gender roles and equality. Watson begins her oration by acknowledging the misinterpretation of the word feminism and the negative connotation that follows. She informs the audience by educating them what gender equality truly is about without tearing down men that is usually perceived by being a feminist. She admits that feminism has brought “fighting for women’s rights has too often become synonymous with man-hating” and quickly alters the misunderstanding defining feminism as, “the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities. It is the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes.”

Watson recalls a time from when faced the unsatisfactory of assumptions of young women, when she said “at age [fourteen] I started being sexualized by certain elements of the press” also when her peers began to submit towards the societal intimidation which placed upon them saying, according to Watson, “When at [fifteen] my girlfriends started dropping out of their sports teams because they didn’t want to appear “muscly.”” Watson shared these illustrations to allow her audience to be familiar with someone who has been a target to gender inequality. Without seeing the matter of gender inequality, the problem can be very blind at times; without actually viewing it through the human experiences, it can be lost to statistics and generalizations. Personifying the matter allows it to strengthen the sympathy and compassion from the audience to be felt for the speaker.

What mainly gave rise to Watson addressing this topic was her emotions attached to the burdens people have felt because of gender inequality. Watson used pathos, an appeal to emotion, to grasp the audience’s attention. Watson provides examples of events in her own life such as, “When at 14, I started to be sexualized by certain elements of the media,” which has helped spark her interest in taking steps to end gender inequality (Watson). Watson provided numerous examples of other women, “When at 15, my girlfriends started dropping out of sports teams because they didn’t want to appear muscly,” as well as examples of males (Watson). Watson recognizes the fact that men are typically less likely to join in the fight for gender equality. In order for Watson to later “invite” men to join the