Spacecat
Answer each question in depth and provide specific evidence from
the text or speaker whenever available. The more you write, the better!
Title of the text:
S
SPEAKER:
Who is the speaker/writer?
What do we know about
them? What can you tell or
what do you know about
the speaker that helps you
understand the point of
view expressed?
P
PURPOSE:
What is the speaker/writer
hoping to accomplish?
What is the reason behind
this piece? What do they
want the audience to do
after having listened?
A
AUDIENCE:
Who is the speaker/writer
trying to reach? How do we
know? Do they indicate a
specific audience? What
assumptions exist in the
text about the intended
audience?
C
CONTEXT:
What is the time and place
of this piece? What is
happening in the world as
it relates to the subject of
the speech or the
speaker/writer?
E
EXIGENCE:
What was the spark or
catalyst that moved the
speaker/writer to
act/write? How did that
event impact the
speaker/writer?
C
CHOICES:
What are the rhetorical
choices that the
speaker/writer makes in
the speech? Think about
The speaker is Emma Watson. She is a very strong and smart feminist, and you can tell
that gender equality and feminism are very important to her. She gives examples of
when during her life she’s experienced sexism and what she decided to do about it.
Knowing this helps us understand why Emma Watson decided to speak about this
because she’s been affected by it and wants to change the disparity between men and
women. She is also an actress and is most famous for playing Hermione Granger in
Harry Potter, who was a smart and headstrong character, much like Emma Watson
herself.
The purpose for this speech is to gather as many people as she can to make a change
in gender equality. In her speech, she specifically says, “Men-I would like to take this
opportunity to extend your formal invitation. Gender equality is your issue too.” While
she wasn’t just speaking to men, the purpose of her speech was to get more people to
be interested in this issue and work harder to fix it and create solutions. Many
statistics today show that women are the ones who care most about gender equality
and equal rights, but in her speech, Watson says that it is an issue for everyone, and
we need everyone to be involved if we want to fix it.
This speech is directed toward everyone. She specifically calls out men and boys, but it
is directed at everyone. We know her audience because there are a few times where
she will specifically mention a group of people or someone who she really wants to
hear her message. She calls out men and boys a few times, but then she also directs
her message to women. She addresses the fact that the word feminist has become
one with a strong negative connotation, so many people today don’t want to be
labelled as feminists, because they are often synonymous with man-haters.
This speech was given at a United Nations Meeting in New York City, on the 20th of
September, 2014. One of the biggest things that was happening in regards to gender
equality was the creation of the new movement/hashtag “HeForShe''. This was the
program that Watson was discussing in her speech. One of the biggest things she
mentions that relates to her speech was the speech that was given by Hillary Clinton
in 1997 that was also dicussing feminism. Watson describes how, unfortunately, many
of the things Clinton wished for still haven’t come true today.
The speaker, Emma Watson, gave examples of times throughout her life when she had
been treated as less than a man, simply because she was a woman. She said that she
was called bossy, she was sexualized by the press, and her friends stopped doing
sports because they didn’t want to look too strong. She said that these things all
caused her to become a femenist and start trying to make a difference in the world
and gender equality. It also impacted her because she became more vocal about these
things that she thought were important.
One of the rhetorical devices I noticed in her speech was repetition. She would say a
lot of things in sets of three, which is to really help emphasize whatever point the
speaker is trying to make. Another rhetorical choice Watson made was to use lots of
personal experiences. She told lots of stories that were from her personal life which
made her sound more like she knew what she was talking about, and made her sound
 overall structure, devices,
diction, syntax, etc.
A
APPEALS:
Which of the three
rhetorical appeals (ethos,
logos, pathos) are present
in the text? Where? Why?
T
TONE:
What is the
speaker/author's attitude
toward the subject? Is the
tone the same throughout
the whole piece? Where
does it shift? What
evidence is there to
demonstrate the tone?
more like an authority on the subject.
All three of the rhetorical appeals were present in this speech. Ethos was present
when she established that she cared about this problem and wants to make it better.
She uses Pathos and Logos when she tells the story about her dad being affected by
this idea of toxic masculinity. She used Logos when giving statistics about women in
Africa being married by the time they were 16, and that it would be a long time before
anything changed if no one did anything to change it.
Watson starts her speech, and essentially throughout the entire thing, is very
passionate and the readers and listeners can tell that she really cares about gender
equality. She sounded passionate the entire tie, though she sounded disappointed a
few times. She sounded disappointed when she was talking about Hillary Clinton’s
speech 15 years previously, and then she spoke about how many things still haven’t
changed. Her tone sounds pretty equal the entire time, and it doesn’t really seem to
change much. She sounds confident while she’s speaking, and she also sounds really
emotional throughout the entire speech.