Monday, March 6, 2017
Stasis in "I'm a Feminist" by Emma Watson
Emma Watson uses the definition stasis in her speech. There is a lot of confusion with the definition of the word "feminism" or a "feminist". As Watson mentions, fighting for women’s rights has too often become synonymous with man-hating". First, the word feminist is automatically associated with females. If the only thing you know about a person is that they are a feminist, you're very likely to assume they are female. This is one of the biggest problems that Watson is trying to battle. She mentions that only 30 percent of the audience in Hillary Clinton's Beijing women's rights speech were men. Watson defines feminism as, "The belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities. It is the theory of the political, economic and social equality of the sexes". She goes on to talk about the negative connotation of the word feminism and how the word is not what is important; it's the message behind it. Therefore, on behalf of the UN women, she introduces the HeForShe campaign. This way both genders are included in the name. This name also emphasizes gender equality more.
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I applaud Watson for standing up for women's rights like this despite the view a lot of people have on feminism. Using stasis theory definitely helped to develop her argument and position using the truth.
ReplyDeleteThe proper defining of the word "feminist" is quintessential to the women's rights movement. Emma Watson uses this speech to accurately describe what feminism entails and break down the stereotypes that come along with being a feminist. This speech was extremely impactful because of her decision to use definition as her stasis.
ReplyDeleteEmma Watson clearly did a great job of using the definition part of stasis in her speech, and I think everything you just wrote about also fits well with the logos of the speech, as she is attempting to appeal to the logic of the audience.
ReplyDeleteI believe she also appealed to ethos due to her references to "male credibility" and things like that.
ReplyDeleteI love how you talked about the stasis of definition in this speech because I believe that the definition of feminism is something that gets far too twisted and muddled in mainstream media and society as a whole. Watson deliberate clearing up of this is certainly definition as she highlights what it truly does mean to be a feminist which leads her perfectly into the HeforShe campaign.
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