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Watson's Heforshe Speech

Decent Essays

Goodwill Ambassador Emma Watson, an acclaimed British actor and feminist, spells out all the reasons why one should be a part of the gender-equality movement in her “HeForShe” speech, given at the United Nations. Watson’s purpose is to refute all of the critics who believe that feminism and the HeForShe movement are bad ideals that are only applicable to women. She adopts a passionate tone throughout her speech in order to convey her principles to her wary United Nations colleagues and those interested in learning more about feminism. To begin her speech, Watson immediately establishes a connection with the audience through pathos by declaring, “I am reaching out to you because we need your help” (1). The immediate interaction between herself …show more content…

The author lists examples of herself subjected to the injustices that come along with the gender inequalities she hinted at before; “When I was 8, I was confused for being bossy because I wanted to direct the plays… When at 14, I started to be sexualized by certain elements of the media” (4). This passage gives the audience something to sympathize and relate with to create an understanding of gender equality by giving real situations the author has experienced. Throughout the entire speech, Watson uses her word choice to lead the audience into believing she is knowledgeable and educated on her topic. By utilizing phrases such as, “isolating, and anti-men” (5), “the same as my male counterparts” (6), and “no country in the world can yet say that they achieved gender equality” (7), Watson demonstrates her concepts easily, but in a way that makes her seem particularly informed on the topic. Within her diction, the author uses repetition to stress her point. While expressing her views and encouraging the audience to agree with her, she repeats the phrase, “I think it is right”, and then follows it with a relatively basic idea that many people also believe, “that… I am afforded the same respect as men”, but may not have realized (6). Repetition allows the listener to recognize that they do in fact share the same beliefs as the author, while it also stresses her thesis that women based movements are beneficial both

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