Rhetorical Analysis of Emma Watson’s “HeForShe” Speech

Name: Tianyi Cheng

Perm Number: 4061859

Instructor: Dr. Nicole Warwick

On September 20, 2014, a special event for the HeForShe campaign was held at

the United Nations headquarters in New York. UN Women Goodwill Ambassador Emma

Watson made a great speech here calling for the realization of gender equality. Emma

Watson, as an excellent actress, has received worldwide attention. While enjoying the

honor, she also shoulders a greater social responsibility to fight for equal rights for

women. Throughout the speech, Emma Watson emphasizes the idea that gender equality

is not just a women's issue but a human issue that requires the involvement and support

of both men and women.

Invention

In this speech, Emma Watson's introduces that gender equality would benefit

mankind all over the world, not only protect women but also prevent men from being

subjected to gender stereotype pressure. She encourages men to join the movement for

gender equality, stating that "Gender equality is your issue too," and calls on them to take

action to challenge gender stereotypes and discrimination. Her primary target audience is

those men who did not consider gender equality as their own issue. Before this, men were

not usually considered in the group of those seeking gender equality and feminism, but in

fact, they should take roles in promoting gender equality. To accomplish the effective

spreading of her ideas and realize the motivational effect of this speech, Emma Watson

deliberately utilizes the four cannons of rhetoric: Arrangement, Style, and Memory and

 Delivery. It is the proper use and perfect integration of these tools that makes this speech

so powerful, and Emma Watson's "HeForShe" speech would resonate with the target

audience of her speech and achieve the effect of persuasion.

Arrangement

At the beginning of the article, the author clearly points out that in this HeForShe

campaign, she “wants to end gender inequality” as soon as possible. This section clearly

lets the listeners identify the central thesis of the speech. By saying, “to do that, we need

everyone to be involved,” Watson encourages the audience to take part in this revolution

positively. This exordium, which defines as “the web that draws listeners into the speech”

by introducing “the subject at hand and including material that would make the audience

both attentive and receptive to the argument,” will immediately draw the audience to

looking forward to what will follow. Watson subsequently points out that the definition of

feminism was different from man-hating. Here, she makes the focus of her discussion

clear. After mentioning the word "feminism" seems too strong, too aggressive, isolating,

anti-men, and unattractive,” Watson arranges a rhetorical question “Why is the word such

an uncomfortable one?” This can be regarded as a transitional signal to lead listeners to

concentrate on the following paragraphs and content for an answer.

The author then introduces several personal anecdotes, listing the stories of

herself and her friends about how gender inequality harms girls' daily life. She changes

the audience's mood from indifference to empathy towards gender inequality by

reminiscing her personal story. Through her experience of being prevented from

"directing the plays" and the cases of women's rights being violated, the author wants to

 show readers that she is a “good” person and has a concept of justice. She arouses the

awareness of the audience that young children should stop doing certain things unfairly

because of the negative effects accumulated from a long-standing gender bias. Watson

demonstrates her values through comments on some unequal cases. The audience's mood

may be changed into anger when hearing that Watson herself could not direct the plays,

as well as her girlfriends who started dropping out of their sports teams because they

didn't want to appear “muscly." and her male friends were unable to express their

feelings. The definition of gender equality is abstract, but all the stories are specific.

Here, Watson successfully gives some real and concrete examples of inequality, getting

people to think about it. The vividness plays an important role in attracting the audience

and visualizing the phenomenon. Many listeners may not have been exposed to these

issues of gender inequality in their own environments, or they may not have been aware

of them. But Emma made her own attitude clear and made readers pay attention to the

irrationality, simultaneously triggering resonance for people with similar experiences.

The narrative of these stories is presented in age order in speech. This can reflect that this

inequality has been appearing along with the author's growth. These personal anecdotes

can be concretized and visualized to make readers feel such depressed circumstances in

detail so as to feel emotional shocks.

The Confirmation section of Watson's presentation is also ingenious and logical.

According to the definition from Professor Dr. Warwick, “Confirmation offers points to

substantiate the argument and provide reasons, details, illustrations, and examples in

support of those points.” After the demonstration of the unequal treatment suffered by

women as a vulnerable group, Watson uses the love and respect she receives to

demonstrate her belief that women should be treated equally. She successfully states her

 values that women employees should be paid the same as men, be able to make decisions

about their own bodies, participate in national political decisions, and be treated with the

same respect. This correct value will trigger a change in the listeners’ minds. The

audience will have a perspective that we should treat other people of different genders

equally in daily life through the author's mentioning of fair treatment by her parents,

school, and tutors. Additionally, in order to convince the audience of the importance of

involving all people, Watson describes the high rate of suicide among men aged 20-49 in

the UK due to mental health problems; by which she raises that young men also suffer

from mental illness, and some of the males are “fragile and insecure by a distorted sense

of what constitutes male success.” This is a fact of the gender stereotype being

detrimental to male victims, and they should be involved in the pursuit of gender

equality.

After this part of the speech, Watson arranged a delicate concession of refutation.

This rhetoric strategy “acknowledges (or appears to acknowledge) the validity of an

opponent's point” and “helps create a sense of agreeability. By arguing without appearing

to argue, agreeability takes the anger out of confrontation, and it helps change a fight into

an argument.” In Watson’s presentation, by saying, "You might be thinking, who is this

Harry Potter girl? And what is she doing up on stage at the UN,” she creates a relaxed

atmosphere. Watson mentions modestly that although her ability is limited, she can also

strive for equal rights. This inviting expression will encourage more people to join the

equal rights movement. From the introduction of Watson's identity by the host before her

speech, we can understand that she is not just an actress but has dedicated herself to

pursuing gender equality for many years and has contributed a lot to it. So she can be

considered as an authority on feminism and gender equality. However, as we can see

 from her congress, she does not argue for her authority and credibility to those who do

not understand her contribution and thus doubt her ability but creates a harmonious

atmosphere and expresses her sincerity. This is more conducive to Watson's goal of

uniting everyone in the "HeforShe" campaign. Watson helps the audience raise up

questions in their minds and answers in a concession way, and by reducing the doubts in

the opponents' minds, she creates a smooth transition to the conclusion by reaching the

agreement with the opposed audiences.

She concluded the speech with a message of urgency that if we do nothing, it will

take 75 years, or even about a hundred years, to achieve equality between men and

women. Here, Watson uses pathos by laying out the huge numbers to make people aware

of the severity of the problem and how large a group of girls is being harmed so that the

audience will arouse sympathy and empathy to take action as soon as possible. By

providing a vision of the future of people doing nothing in the present, Watson leaves

people with a firm choice, which is to get involved in the movement to push for gender

equality. As Professor Dr. Warwick mentions in the “Invention/Ethos, Pathos, and Logos

Notes,” “You can persuade someone logically, but you need something more combustible

to get them out of their chair to act on it. People cannot be persuaded without emotion.”

Watson does a great job of pulling the audience into her team by encouraging, “If you

believe in equality, you might be one of those inadvertent feminists I spoke of earlier.” At

the end of the passage, the author mentions: "he for she," which is the slogan mentioned

at the beginning of the speech. It can be seen as a callback and also a finalized symbol.

Style

 The overall style of language used is simple and direct to the central point about

the harm caused by gender inequality and the urgency and feasibility of achieving

equality. Watson's speech is for the public as a whole so that such language will be close

to the public without sensationalism. Also, Watson utilizes the tool of repetition skillfully.

According to Professor Dr. Warwick, Repetition, like anaphora, or the repetition of the

same word or group of words at the beginning of successive clauses, sentences, or lines,

can help with clarity. In the speech, Watson mentions, "When at eight I was confused at

being called bossy,... When at 14 I started being sexualized by certain elements of the

press. When at 15 my girlfriends... When at 18 my male friends..." Repetition here

functions as emphasis, which can definitely create power and energy. This skill can be

seen as the bold in the text. It helps to arouse the concentration of the audience that

gender inequality is not an occasional accident, but exists in her daily life and many parts

of the world. The repetition helps to clarify that the damage caused by these unequal

situations needs to be taken seriously. The audiences also tend to stay focused on this

central topic.

This strategy of repetition also appears with four "it is right..." to show what

would a world of gender equality looks like and further clarify the confusion of the

audience about women's human rights in four specific aspects, including the right to

receive equal pay, physical autonomy, political participation, and the same respect as

males. In this speech, repetition is more infectious and sets off an atmosphere of

heightened enthusiasm. By emphasizing repetition here, listeners will be impressed by its

systematic structure and repeated keywords.

 In order to keep the audience focused on the speech and avoid abstract exposition,

Watson uses vivid words in the story description. Vividness tends to “be most apparent in

the narration part of the speech where you tell the story and give the facts.” (Warwick)In

Watson's story, she uses diction like "bossy" and "muscly" to reflect what happens when

girls are discriminated against and disrespected. With the help of this imagery

description, “the speaker is able to create rhetorical reality before the audience’s very

eyes.” Therefore, the audience visualizes this gendered and satirized image before their

eyes. Girls are mocked for being "bossy" when they actively participate in leadership,

which means boys are expected to take the role of boss. This expression satirizes such a

false belief that women are supposed to be submissive instead of putting forward their

own ideas, let alone leading others. Also, strong girls are criticized as "muscly," and the

term has rightly become a male descriptor. The audience will realize that many girls love

a sport but have to give it up because of body anxiety, and there is a stereotype that

"muscly" women are not beautiful. At the end of the article, the author mentions, "invite

you to step forward,” The chosen word "invite" fit the subject matter and situation

because she respects and attaches great importance to the readers. Here, Watson's sincere

attitude can be fully displayed.

Memory&Delivery

Watson memorized almost the entire speech, which means that she thought about

the issue of gender equality seriously and sincerely. In addition, her off-script speech can

better help her to make eye contact and interact with the audience. For example, when

she put forward the proposal, she made eye contact with the audience. She did not choose

to scan the whole room but targeted eye positioning: “Men -- I would like to take this

 opportunity to extend your formal invitation. Gender equality is your issue too.” And

right at this moment, her encouraging smile can convey her invitation appropriately.

Watson's delivery of the speech is also an important technique, including her body

language and the appropriate pauses and stresses in her delivery all make her whole

speech persuasive. She uses effective delivery rhetoric to successfully capture the

attention of the audience, maintain their interest, and leave a lasting impression. Watson

mentions in her speech: “If there is one thing I know for certain, it is that this has to

stop.” Every word and every pause reflects a serious attitude. She makes firm eye contact

with the reader, and the determined look in her eyes also expresses her faith in winning.

Her voice was low and steady in most parts of the speech to express a woman's firm

belief in equal rights. Watson's looked around sometimes, not missing any corner of the

audience because this belief needed everyone's recognition and participation. Also, after

her narration of self-experience of gender equality, she immediately says, “No country in

the world can yet say they have achieved gender equality.” The speaker's emotions are

mixed here. She expresses a feeling of regret. Meanwhile, Watson’s eyebrows drooped,

and as one of the vulnerable groups of women, her expression was pitiful. People will

sympathize with her as well as the wider group of women. At the time of final

encouragement, Watson specifically puts forward, "Men -- I would like to take this

opportunity to extend your formal invitation. Gender equality is your issue too." Watson

smiles and says the words and her smile here relieves the tension and pressure of the

audience. She made the male audience deeply aware that the absence of men in the

feminist movement is indeed the root cause of the incomplete reform, so her smile has a

strong encouraging effect.

 In conclusion, Watson Emma employs the Five Cannons of Rhetoric, including

invention, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery in the speech to motivate the

audience to fight for gender equality. With the help of ethos, logos, and pathos in

Watson's elaborate content arrangement and proper presentation skills, this speech was

indeed a great success. Even male listeners, some of whom have been victimized by

gender stereotypes, can relate. Women who are already treated as equals will also

sympathize with girls who are still suffering. Although gender equality in the world is

difficult to achieve in a short time, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single

step. As a matter of fact, Watson, as a public figure, especially as a popular actress among

teenagers, has taken on the great responsibility of promoting social development. After

all, teenagers are the future of the world, and when their ideas change, the world will

become a better place.

 Work Cited

Warwick, Nicole. “Arrangement Notes.” WRIT 105R, UCSB, https://docs.google.com/document/d/

1Efpzfj-hZ486k-no7b2sb3_MdpwNLefgMc1TQoHxYUs/edit. 17 April 2023.

Class Handout

Warwick, Nicole. “Invention/Ethos, Pathos, and Logos Notes.” WRIT 105R, UCSB, https://

docs.google.com/document/d/1ZKvGpdrYdusJTrRWzU7flQlPQ10XL9Dz-Dx2DVlXlOo/

edit?usp=sharing. 12 April 2023. Class Handout

Warwick, Nicole. “Style, Memory, Delivery Notes.” WRIT 105R, UCSB, https://docs.google.com/

document/d/1MQjBoaIxeczMERh1xtMIkwJap0HjdCXokVjVgE3gLEg/edit?usp=sharing.

12 April 2023. Class Handout

Watson, Emma. “HeforShe U.N. Speech.” UN General Assembly, 21 September 2014, UN

General Assembly, New York City, Featured Speaker Presentation.