Audience Analysis for "Respect" by Aretha Franklin

With the song "Respect" Franklin is able to send a message that resonates with all individuals who hear it. The song was a single from her album "I Never Loved a Man the Way I love You."  During this time many women participated in the sexual revolution and challenged traditional views. The new freedom for women gave members of society the idea that it was acceptable to discriminate against these women. However, Franklin's song challenges this stigma and directly addresses this problem. She includes lines such as " I ain't gonna do you wrong while you're gone....cause I don't wanna" which  challenges the idea that a woman will go behind a man's back just because she has more freedom.  The emphasis on  "I don't wanna" gives the woman a powerful aura because she has the choice to make her own actions. By including lines that adhere to traditional values like faithfulness she is able to show her partner that she is worthy of respect and moreover deserves it. The audience that the song seems to be reaching out to is a lover; however, by reading between the lyrics it is easy to see one of the underlying messages that she included for the general public to notice and understand.  She ultimately wants individuals to realize that just because women get more rights it does not mean that they are going to "run wild" and forget about self respect.

Audience Analysis for "I'm a Feminist" by Emma Watson

Emma Watson gave her speech at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. Although the speech was given to UN members, Watson’s speech was directed towards basically everyone. Watson is one of the UN Women’s Goodwill Ambassadors who are tasked with highlighting and drawing attention to key issues on behalf of the United Nations. The most important part of the HeForShe campaign is that it calls women and men to action. Watson’s central message was that gender equality is not just women’s problems. Therefore, she made sure to get men’s attention by shaping her speech to list how gender equality affects men. She talked about how her male friends were unable to express their emotions and how men who suffer from mental illnesses are likely to hide it so that they wouldn’t seem less “macho”. She also calls men to action so that, “their daughters, sisters, and mothers can be free from prejudice but also so that their sons have permission to be vulnerable and human too”. Watson's message was not just for women and men of America. By stating that, "no country in the world can yet say they have achieved gender equality", Watson made her message international. 

The Pathos in "Respect" by Aretha Franklin

Aretha Franklin successfully incorporated pathos in her version of the song "Respect" originally written by Otis Redding to further the rhetoric for gender equality. Pathos is an emotional appeal to the audience to invoke feelings and imagination. It is important to note the difference between the original and the altered versions to see the way pathos is used to invoke pride in ones' womanhood in this particular text. Franklin's version boasted of a woman's confidence and worth when she changed Redding's lyrics from: "What you want, honey you got it/ And what you need, baby you got it" to "What you want/ Baby, I got/ What you need/ Do you know I got it?" She affirmed that she has what her lover needs and she knew it. There was also a clear shift of point of view between the two versions. Redding's version featured a man that pleaded for his lover's respect alluding to the lover's infidelity with the lyrics: "You can do me wrong, honey while I'm gone/ But all I'm askin' is for a little respect when I come home." Franklin's version was from the view of a woman who demanded respect from her lover because she knew she deserved better: "You might walk in/ And find out I'm gone/ I got to have/ A little respect." This clear portrayal of a proud woman declared to society that women must be treated with respect too. Franklin even showed the woman as the primary breadwinner in the song: "I'm about to give you all of my money/ And all I'm askin'/ Is for a little respect." Women were often seen as the happy little homemaker and were expected to go along with the whims of their husband but the fact that Franklin's version deliberately changed the lyrics to illustrate a strong woman was a stand against prejudiced thinking.

Link to Otis Redding's version.
Link to Aretha Franklin's version.