La Rosa-Joe 1

Alexis La Rosa-Joe

Dr.Arini

2/17/20

Comparative Rhetorical Analysis of Amber Rose and Henry Rollins

The two motivational speakers that I chose to analyze are Henry Rollins and Amber

Rose. Henry Rollins is an activist, musician, comedian, actor, etc. What caught my attention

about Henry was the fact that he often shines a light on the gay and young community.

Often sharing words of encouragement that

enlighten his large fan base. He is always joking and has

a very different way of sharing his thoughts. Next, I

chose Amber Rose who is a model, actress, author, and

activist. She’s a sex icon who uses her charisma to

normalize the stigma behind the LGBTQ community and

“slutty behavior”. Both Amber and Henry have fans, host

events, and are supportive of the LGBTQ community. I

will analyze their use of Ethos, Logos Pathos,

imagery, and tone. I think it will be interesting to

compare and contrast these two because Amber

Rose basically delivers all her messages with a

sexy aspect, and Henry Rollins has not been in a

romantic relationship in over 20 years. Both

 La Rosa-Joe 2

have similar concerns, have a history with the music industry and make a large difference in

society. However, the ways that they share their beliefs and encouragement are different. 

Henry starts off the video "Letter to a Young American"  by referring to the watchers as a

“Young Person”. Henry has grey hair, and it is safe to assume he isn't “young”. With that, he is

easier to listen to because of his experience based on his age. He is utilizing Ethos here. He goes

on to describe a commonality amongst young adults: hardships. He mentions that it may be

frustrating to those who are less privileged to observe more fortunate people. He steers the

audience’s focus by giving the example of an influential figure, Abraham Lincoln who had an

extremely poor upbringing. Here Henry is creating a reachable environment by employing ethos

again referencing a known successful individual.

In another similar style video titled   "Henry Rollins on Gay Marriage". Henry is giving

his opinion on gay marriage. A moment of exigency for Henry was in high school. Henry

witnessed extended bullying to one of his classmates until the point of attempted suicide. Henry

believes it was a time when his anti-homophobia developed. In the video, Henry says, “I am not

convinced that, that many people really have a problem with gay marriage”. He goes on to

support this with a theory that those who claim to hate gays are just using this topic as a means of

entertainment. Henry then says, “Hating the gay, that one always performs”. He refers to “that

one” as the hate for gay people. The word performs has a negative connotation because a

person's preference should not be up for display or used for amusement. Here the

word performs  implies inappropriateness and mistreatment. The word choice is bothersome and

impactful. He uses pathos to arouse the audience's sympathy for gay people and gay marriage.

He continues his video with some kind words, such as, “If two people are crazy enough to be that

in love with each other, it's a great thing, give them a break, life is really short, let them have a
 La Rosa-Joe 3

little happiness. “ This description of love is touching and another great example of pathos. Later

on in the video, Henry mentions that “ That's why we have amendments to the constitution so it

has wiggle room. I think that gay marriage is already covered under the first amendment, so I

think this conversation is over.” Henry is applying logos, we can look to amendments as facts

and with that, it is a logical appeal.

If you visit Henry’s Instagram page, you will notice that he has a large growing number

of 176k followers. This followership that he has let us know that a lot of people look up to him

as a public figure which is an example of ethos. His Instagram page bio consists of Henry's name

and his friend Heidi’s name, they share an Instagram account and are often sharing silly posts of

one another laughing. He and Heidi also host a podcast; that information is shared in his

Instagram bio with a link. All of Henry's experiences and accomplishments really work as ethos

because he is extremely credible and has multiple responsibilities. If you watch the first video

Henry has on his page he is being recorded by a woman who asks him, “ what are you doing?”

and he responds with “ Signing books”. Henry has just recently released and written a book

called  Stay fanatic Vol 1. Henry has written around 29 books, topics ranging from travel

experiences where he meets all different kinds of people to his search for interesting music

records.

In Amber’s video "Amber Rose on Fighting against Slut-shaming", Amanda Knox joins

Amber at her home to discuss confidence, and how exactly Amber deals with the continuous

judgment that comes with her lifestyle based on her past. Amanda is an American woman who

served time in an Italian prison for murder, which she was later acquitted. She claims the Italian

police justified her for murder by portraying her as sexually promiscuous. As Amanda enters

Ambers home, she is greeted by Amber who is smiling and gives Amanda a hug. Pathos is
 La Rosa-Joe 4

applied here creating a warm and comfortable environment for the audience and Amanda. They

went on a slight tour of Ambers home where there was a poster that read, “ Reclaim the word

slut” next to a baseball hat that was studded and also read “slut”. As the two women sat, they

began to talk about women being vilified through their sexuality. Amber openly shares that she

used to be a stripper, however she does not look at this point of her life as something that was

negative. Amber says, “It was the best time of my life. “She has established ethos here, Amber

was a stripper but she is now a millionaire. As the video continues, Amber says,” It was a form

of business school for me” here she is using situational irony. The audience has to be thrown for

a loop when they hear this comparison. It is extreme, but you can believe her because of her

current status. 

On Amber’s Instagram, her profile photo is her topless wearing boxing gloves and she is

covering her breasts with one hand and biting on the other. The message that the pictures send is

empowerment along with sex appeal. Her bio reads, “Empowering women & LGBTQ+

community while ending sexual and social injustice, derogatory labeling & gender inequality”. If

you continue to scroll, you will notice several posts containing supportive captions. A moment of

exigency for Amber was in 2011 when a Toronto police suggested to a group of college women

that they shouldn’t dress like sluts if they didn’t want to be sexually assaulted. Women began

taking a stand, and Amber saw a photo of a woman wearing pasties and wrote on her bare skin,

“Still not asking for it.”Amber became interested and wanted to take part in the movement. She

tweeted that she was having a Slutwalk that year, and it began trending and has had a growing

population since then. One post is a poster board being held by a participant at the

annual Slutwalk with different color handwriting that spells out “ The empowered woman is

powerful beyond measure and beautiful beyond description”; the post is gripping, pathos is
 La Rosa-Joe 5

demonstrated here. On another post, there is a woman smiling and posing in front of a large

chalkboard where there are several different writings but the largest one reads “SLUT” and the

caption is “One of our favorite parts of Slutwalk… The wall of no Shame.” Pathos is

implemented again, people are often being called sluts with a negative connotation. This page is

normalizing the word with hopes to end Slut-shaming and it’s working towards that with 67k

followers and supporters.

While listening to Loveline with Amber Rose, where there are 29k followers I noticed

that each episode is hosted with Dr. Chris Donahue who practices general psychology &

specializes in individual therapy, couples & sex therapy. The audience who calls and asks for

advice can expect credibility and knowledge from not just Amber because of her experience but

also Chris. Her platform employs ethos just by the cast members. In one of her episodes, she

addresses a celebrity who quickly attacked Amber’s Slutwalk movement. Her response was “

Hey, one day someone will call your daughter a slut, hoe, whore, etc for no reason at all besides

the fact that she is beautiful, confident, possibly if she wears something sexy/god forbid gets

sexually assaulted or victim-blamed. Please educate yourself on what the movement is before

you speak so ignorantly. You’re welcome to visit Amberose.com for more info.” She has a

personal experience without shaming here and handles it well by utilizing pathos to respond to

her attacker. In another episode, she covers defining gender. She and Chris emphasize how

important it is to ask people what they want to be referred to because they had both accidentally

called someone by the wrong pronoun. Again pathos is applied.

Both Amber and Henry speak encouraging words to a large audience and their

knowledge stems from experience. I think both speaker's approach is something you have to

have an open mind to listen to. They both say things that are a bit raw, however, they are genuine
 La Rosa-Joe 6

and ultimately kind people. I would say that Henry’s approach is probably more admired because

Amber's sex appeal can be found offensive. Overall, both speakers employ a lot of pathos, ethos

and a very small amount of logos in their speaking. I feel fascinated when hearing them speak

and since discovering both speakers I have found that I do take a step back before passing

judgements on others.
 La Rosa-Joe 7

Works Cited

Rollins ,Henry. “Henry Rollins on Gay Marriage”. Accessed 16 Feb,2020

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kF7vNVmb2fo

Rollins,Henry. “Letter to a Young American”

https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?

fr=mcafee&p=letter+to+young+american#id=1&vid=95c783d0f52e3568c71fd53d39b3fc17&act

ion=click

Rollins, Henry. “Henry Rollins & Heidi May (@Henryandheidi) Instagram photos and

videoshttp://www.instagram.com/henryandheidi/?hl=en

Rose, Amber. “Amber Rose SlutWalk (@slutwalk_la) Instagram photos and Videos.

http://www.instagram.com/slutwalk_la?hl=en . Accessed 16 Feb,2020

Rose, Amber. “Loveline with Amber Rose.“ Stitcher,

http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/entercome/loveline-with-amber-rose. Accessed 16 Feb,2020

Rose, Amber “Amber rose on fighting against Slut Shaming”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WximQA0vPwk