Anqud 1

Leena Anqud

Dr. Nicole Warwick

WRIT105R

14 June 2023

Watson’s Effective Use of Rhetoric

Acclaimed child star turned activist, Emma Watson was faced with the daunting task of

presenting the United Nations new feminist campaign, HeForShe. In her speech to the UN guests

in 2014, Watson maintains a delicate balance between authority and camaraderie, simultaneously

guiding and working with her audience to inspire action and advocacy for the HeForShe

campaign and gender equality in general. Speaking on the International Day of Peace, a holiday

acknowledged annually by the United Nations, Watson effectively uses tools of rhetoric to

inform and inspire the “distinguished guests” in her audience.

ARRANGEMENT

Watson maintains a careful arrangement of personal versus global and devastation versus

hope. With each personal anecdote she delivers, she’s sure to expand it to the broader scope of

both men and women in her life, as well as people all across the world. Watson cites instances in

her childhood where she was “called bossy” for choosing to direct the plays being put on for

parents, when boys were not handled with the same negativity. She expands upon this, ensuring

that she is not centering herself in the argument, beginning to speak about experiences her female

friends were having at 15, as well as struggles faced by men at 18. By starting small and personal

and then expanding out to a broader scope of both women and men, Emma allows the audience

to find their own place in gender equality, ensuring that the subject is beneficial to all and isn’t

merely self-serving. Watson selects rather devastating statistics to share with the crowd,
 Anqud 2

referencing topics like child marriage and male suicide rates. While these are heart-wrenching,

Watson is sure to follow them up with hope. She establishes this hope most firmly at the end of

the piece, stating “We are struggling for a uniting word, but the good news is that we have a

uniting movement. It is called HeForShe”, ultimately eliciting optimism through the potential for

change due to the HeForShe campaign. The delicate balance of her arrangement is the

overarching strategy of her speech, dictating the overall use of rhetoric.

INVENTION

While Watson remains seemingly unemotional, she works tirelessly to change the mind’s

of the audience members and inspire them to act. Watson focuses on changing the mood of the

audience to inspire hope, presenting HeForShe as the solution to the issue of gender inequality.

Watson is conservative in her pathos, never shedding a tear or inciting an audience rallying cry.

The sort of emotional refusal presented by Watson is likely intentional, as she risks losing her

audience by digging too deep. Without relying on her own emotion, she is able to elicit an

emotional response in her audience through anecdotes of sexualization in her youth, mentions of

body image issues in young girls, and an inability of men to express their emotions, all of which

will hopefully encourage them to join the HeForShe movement.

Once the mood of the audience is altered, she’s capable of changing their minds through

ethos and logos. First, she uses ethos to establish her authority with the audience, beginning by

framing herself as a virtuous person who possesses both personal and general knowledge of the

matter at hand. She states her association with the United Nations, citing her six months of work

with the organization progressing towards gender equality. Watson continues to acknowledge the

doubt that still might remain in the eyes of the listeners, questioning out loud, “Who is this

‘Harry Potter’ girl? What is she doing speaking at the U.N.?”, relating to the audience by stating
 Anqud 3

that she asks herself the same thing. Her defense to this question, which she manages to approach

without seeming defensive in the slightest, is that the topic is simply something she feels

passionate about, and that she believes she can do good and inspire good given the platform she

built in her youth. With her authority established, Watson is now able to change the mind of the

audience in her use of logos, centered around her consistent framing and reframing of common

misconceptions regarding feminism. She summarizes this stating, “...fighting for women’s rights

has too often become synonymous with man hating. If there is one thing I know for certain is

that this has to stop”. Immediately, she rejects the largest misconception of feminism being

anti-man. Rather, she establishes it “by definition” calling feminism “the belief that men and

women should have equal rights and opportunities”. Her reframing of the overarching concept of

her speech comes at a crucial point in the speech: the beginning. By reframing the concept, she

sets the precedent for the rest of the conversation, which focuses on inclusivity and equality for

all, allowing the audience to participate and place themselves within the framework of gender

equality. Uncoincidentally, the reframing follows the trajectory of the arrangement of the speech.

The original, misconstrued definition of feminism is devastating for those who felt they didn’t

have a place in gender inequality due to the claim that it’s “anti-man”. By correcting this, Watson

changes the minds of the audience, making them hopeful for the feminist future, and setting

herself up perfectly to call the listeners to action.

Watson isn’t covert about her mission of calling the audience to action either, beginning

her speech by stating “We want to try and galvanize as many men and boys as possible to be

advocates for change and we don't just want to talk about it. We want to try and make sure that

it's tangible”. By establishing the intention of the speech immediately, Watson leaves no room for

anyone in the audience to question what her ultimate purpose is. Just as she starts the speech by
 Anqud 4

setting the intention of action, she ends the speech with the same notion. Directly addressing the

audience, Watson humbly states “I am inviting you to step forward to be seen and to ask

yourself, if not me, who? If not now, when?”. There simply isn’t a way to more directly address

the audience; Watson is quite literally extending an invitation for those listening to band together

and join the forces of HeForShe against gender inequality. Allowing this to be her final statement

leaves the call to action lingering in the minds of the audience as they move forward with the rest

of their day.

STYLE

Watson’s ability to effectively call to action is largely aided by her stylistic choice of the

consistent use of pronouns. She frequently uses words like “you”, “me”, and “we”. By doing so,

she makes the matter at hand a personal issue for all present. The audience likely holds a

multitude of different individuals from a variety of backgrounds. By relating her speech directly

to the diverse audience, she’s ultimately expanding the cause globally, as the variety of people in

the audience is symbolic of the variety of people in the world. Her use of pronouns likely makes

the audience feel important. By using phrases like, “We don’t just want to talk about it, we want

to make sure it’s tangible”, Watson is granting the audience the ability to be heroes in their own

right, by fighting for the rights of men and women across the globe. The pronoun usage inspires

a sense of importance in the audience. They have the power to correct the wrongs of the world,

and Watson provides a vehicle for them to use their power through HeForShe. She creates the

idea that this isn’t merely a discussion; words aren’t enough. What matters is the action that

comes after the discussion occurs, and she specifically calls out the audience in her use of the

pronoun ‘we’. Lastly, her careful choice of the phrase “gender equality” over the term

“feminism” is a calculated form of inclusivity. After she frames and reframes the idea of
 Anqud 5

feminism, she doesn’t say the word again, rather opting for the term “gender equality”. Likely,

she hopes to eliminate the idea that the matter at hand isn’t something just for women, as implied

by the ‘fem’ in ‘feminism’, it’s something that concerns everyone, once again introducing her

argument into the global view.

MEMORY

While one can’t state with absolute certainty, it seems incredibly likely that Watson has

memorized the entirety of the twelve minute speech. Given her profession as an actor, one can

assume that this is a feat Watson is capable of accomplishing. By memorizing the speech, rather

than referencing notecards or a teleprompter, Watson is capable of having more intimate

moments with the audience. For one, there’s the ever-present care that goes into memorizing

long form work, demonstrating a passion for the topic that extends into her free time, as she’s

dedicated her own time to fully memorize the speech. This memorization greatly impacts the

overall delivery of the spoken essay, as time that would’ve been spent flipping a notecard or

reading a teleprompter is used to engage directly with the audience, making intentional and

impactful eye contact.

DELIVERY

Watson takes a more reserved approach to delivery. She generally shows decorum,

speaking slowly and clearly, while maintaining her composure, but allowing vulnerability to

show. She’s seen taking deep, calming breaths, as well as there being an occasional tremor to her

voice. At one point, she acknowledges her nerves, stating, “In my nervousness for this speech,

and in my moments of doubt, I’ve told myself firmly, if not me who?”. By doing so, she allows

the audience a peek behind the curtain, demonstrating to them that she is just a fellow human

being, advocating for a cause and hoping they will join her. She is not overly emotional in tone
 Anqud 6

or facial expression. On one hand, she could fear emotion being labeled as feminine hysteria,

which is a potential label that might be placed upon her by those opposed to feminism in an

effort to shut her argument down. On the other side of the argument, Watson might be taking a

reserved approach due to her career as an actor. There’s a fine line between being genuine and

sincere and a dramatic performance. Watson wants the audience to know that the subject is a

matter close to her heart, and overplaying the delivery can make it seem less authentic and more

theatrical, which takes away from the important topic at hand. Additionally, her sophisticated

approach is appropriate given the setting. The United Nations is highly regarded, and not

necessarily the place for a large battle cry, which Watson acknowledges in her composure.

CONCLUSION

By placing emphasis on the arrangement portion of her rhetorical usage, Watson fulfills

her ultimate goal of inspiring the audience to join the HeForShe cause by relating the topic to a

wide array of individuals and eliciting a hope for positive change. Watson’s greatest strengths lie

in her use of ethos and logos. However, these are bolstered by the specific and calculated

attributes of delivery, style, and pathos in her speech. By maintaining a delicate balance of a

multitude of challenging portions in her speech, she is able to more effectively inspire the

audience. She’s simultaneously informative, dedicated, and influential, calling those in-person

and listening years later to join her forces as part of the HeForShe movement.
 Anqud 7

Works Cited

“HeForShe U.N. Speech - Sept. 21, 2014.” Archives of Women’s Political Communication, 21

Sept. 2014, awpc.cattcenter.iastate.edu/2017/03/09/heforshe-u-n-speech-sept-21-2014/.