Lanceringen af He For She-kampagnen

Emma Watson

  • År: 2014
  • Sted: FN's hovedkvarter, New York, USA

Analyseret af
Christoffer More, Gunvor Barkholt og Rebecca Beringer, retorikstuderende ved Københavns Universitet

“Both men and women should feel free to be sensitive. Both men and women should feel free to be strong.”

Derfor er denne tale interessant

Emma Watson åbner i talen for at se på ligestilling mellem kønnene med friske øjne. Hun opfordrer mænd til at deltage aktivt i denne kamp for lige rettigheder. Ifølge Watson er ligestilling mellem kønnene og kønsdiskrimination uhyre vigtige emner, der bør betragtes som et spørgsmål om menneskerettigheder.

Hun møder udfordringer i forhold til, at hun bliver nødt til at sætte “feminisme” ind i en ny kontekst, fordi mange forbinder det med mandehad.

Dele af Watsons publikum vil på forhånd være positivt stemt, mens andre vil mene at feminisme har en negativ konnotation - hvorfor de bliver sværere at overbevise. Watson stiller skarpt på vigtigheden i at mobilisere drenge og mænd, så de vil deltage aktivt i kampen for ligestilling og imod kønsdiskrimination.

Vær særligt opmærksom på, hvordan Watson forsøger at etablere sit etos, og hvordan - eller hvorvidt - denne etos udvikler sig fra start til slut.

Den retoriske situation

Emma Watson taler til medlemmerne af De Forenede Nationer (UN) i United Nations Headquarters, New York, den 20. september 2014 til et specielt launch-event for kampagnen HeForShe. Et halvt år forinden er hun blevet valgt som Goodwill Ambassador for UN Women, som står bag HeForShe. UN Women fik de følgende dage efter talen mobiliseret mere end 100.000 mænd i deres kampagne - med kendte navne som fx Barack Obama, Matt Damon og Ban Ki-moon.

HeForShe kæmper for kvinders rettigheder verden over. Som et led i dette ønsker de at aktivere mænd og drenge med henblik på at få dem til at tage del i ligestillingsdebatten samt aktivt bekæmpe kønsdiskrimination.

Video:

Today we are launching a campaign called HeForShe. I am reaching out to you because we need your help. We want to end gender inequality, and to do this, we need everyone involved. This is the first campaign of its kind at the UN. We want to try to mobilize 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.

I was appointed as Goodwill Ambassador for UN Women six months ago. And, the more I spoke about feminism, the more I realized that fighting for women’s rights has too often become synonymous with man-hating. If there is one thing I know for certain, it is that this has to stop.

For the record, feminism by definition is the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities. It is the theory of political, economic and social equality of the sexes.

I started questioning gender-based assumptions a long time ago. When I was 8, I was confused for being called bossy because I wanted to direct the plays that we would put on for our parents, but the boys were not. When at 14, I started to be sexualized by certain elements of the media. When at 15, my girlfriends started dropping out of sports teams because they didn’t want to appear muscly. When at 18, my male friends were unable to express their feelings.

I decided that I was a feminist, and this seemed uncomplicated to me. But my recent research has shown me that feminism has become an unpopular word. Women are choosing not to identify as feminists. Apparently, I’m among the ranks of women whose expressions are seen as too strong, too aggressive, isolating, and anti-men. Unattractive, even.

Why has the word become such an uncomfortable one? I am from Britain, and I think it is right I am paid the same as my male counterparts. I think it is right that I should be able to make decisions about my own body. I think it is right that women be involved on my behalf in the policies and decisions that will affect my life. I think it is right that socially, I am afforded the same respect as men.

But sadly, I can say that there is no one country in the world where all women can expect to see these rights. No country in the world can yet say that they achieved gender equality. These rights, I consider to be human rights, but I am one of the lucky ones.

My life is a sheer privilege because my parents didn’t love me less because I was born a daughter. My school did not limit me because I was a girl. My mentors didn't assume that I would go less far because I might give birth to a child one day. These influences were the gender equality ambassadors that made me who I am today. They may not know it, but they are the inadvertent feminists that are changing the world today. We need more of those.

And if you still hate the word, it is not the word that is important. It’s the idea and the ambition behind it, because not all women have received the same rights I have. In fact, statistically, very few have.

In 1997, Hillary Clinton made a famous speech in Beijing about women’s rights. Sadly, many of the things that she wanted to change are still true today. But what stood out for me the most was that less than thirty percent of the audience were male. How can we effect change in the world when only half of it is invited or feel welcome to participate in the conversation?

Men, I would like to take this opportunity to extend your formal invitation. Gender equality is your issue, too. Because to date, I’ve seen my father’s role as a parent being valued less by society, despite my need of his presence as a child, as much as my mother’s. I’ve seen young men suffering from mental illness, unable to ask for help for fear it would make them less of a man. In fact, in the UK, suicide is the biggest killer of men between 20 to 49, eclipsing road accidents, cancer and coronary heart disease. I’ve seen men made fragile and insecure by a distorted sense of what constitutes male success. Men don’t have the benefits of equality, either.

We don’t often talk about men being imprisoned by gender stereotypes, but I can see that they are, and that when they are free, things will change for women as a natural consequence. If men don’t have to be aggressive in order to be accepted, women won’t feel compelled to be submissive. If men don’t have to control, women won’t have to be controlled.

Both men and women should feel free to be sensitive. Both men and women should feel free to be strong. It is time that we all perceive gender on a spectrum, instead of two sets of opposing ideals. If we stop defining each other by what we are not, and start defining ourselves by who we are, we can all be freer, and this is what HeForShe is about. It’s about freedom.

I want men to take up this mantle 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, reclaim those parts of themselves they abandoned, and in doing so, be a more true and complete version of themselves.

You might be thinking, “Who is this Harry Potter girl, and what is she doing speaking at the UN?” And, it’s a really good question. I’ve been asking myself the same thing.

All I know is that I care about this problem, and I want to make it better. And, having seen what I’ve seen, and given the chance, I feel it is my responsibility to say something.

Statesman Edmund Burke said, “All that is needed for the forces of evil to triumph is for good men and women to do nothing.”

In my nervousness for this speech and in my moments of doubt, I told myself firmly, “If not me, who? If not now, when?” If you have similar doubts when opportunities are presented to you, I hope those words will be helpful. Because the reality is that if we do nothing, it will take seventy-five years, or for me to be nearly 100, before women can expect to be paid the same as men for the same work. Fifteen and a half million girls will be married in the next 16 years as children. And at current rates, it won't be until 2086 before all rural African girls can have a secondary education.

If you believe in equality, you might be one of those inadvertent feminists that I spoke of earlier, and for this, I applaud you. We are struggling for a uniting word, but the good news is, we have a uniting movement. It is called HeForShe. I invite you to step forward, to be seen and to ask yourself, “If not me, who? If not now, when?”

Thank you very, very much.

Det siger retorikerne

Om fremførelsen

Emma Watson fremstår meget menneskelig med hendes lidt skælvende stemme. Hun taler langsomt og tydeligt, bruger mange emfatiske tryk, og så har hun masser af mimik, som støtter op om talens indhold. Det er hendes naturlige, menneskelige og identificerbare fremtoning, der sørger for, at talen, i så høj grad, påvirker publikum. Samtidig fungerer det godt, at hun fremstår så følelsesmæssigt berørt, eftersom feminisme-debatten må siges at være ret kompliceret og svær at gribe an. Watsons stærke actio styrker talens dialogsøgende elementer yderligere.

Om udviklingen i Watsons etos

Emma Watsons etos forud for talen virker, for de fleste i publikum, nok ikke så stærkt i hendes rolle som Goodwill Ambassador for UN Women. Sagt med Watsons egne ord: “Who is this Harry Potter girl, and what is she doing speaking at the UN?”. Der kan være dele af publikum, som kun ser Watson som Hermione fra Harry Potter og derfor er kritiske over for, hvorfor hun skulle være den rette til at stå på den talerstol. Men gennem talen, blandt andet i førnævnte citat får hun løbende styrket sin etos. Det gør hun også gennem sin måde at fremføre talen, hvor hun får skabt en tydelig begrundelse for, hvorfor hun ved så meget emnet. Hun afslutter altså med en stærk etos, som også afspejles i den store applaus.

Talens betydning for HeForShe

Alt i alt mener vi, at talen er særdeles vellykket. Watson får opbygget en stærk etos ved blandt andet at vaccinere mod eventuelle modargumenter og fordomme. Talen er uden tvivl værd at se - og så er den også værd at lade sig inspirere af: både i forhold til Watsons måde at fremføre talen samt hendes argumentation. Desuden er talen en fornøjelse på grund af de mange sproglige finesser.

Emma Watsons rørende, personlige tale sendte HeForShe-kampagnen i luften med raketfart - det er en tale som i dag har ca. to millioner afspilninger på YouTube. Og verden er allerede kommet et godt stykke af vejen mod gender equality, hvis man spørger Emma Watson i dag, hvilket magasinet Elle gjorde to år efter startskuddet for HeForShe. I artiklen står der blandt andet:

"Over a million men have pledged support to the UN Women movement, and while there is still work to be done, Watson is overwhelmed by the progress made in just two years. "We've seen seismic shifts in culture recently, says Emma Watson.""

  1. Watson indleder med en direkte henvendelse til publikum, som kan skabe modtageraktivering.
  2. Dette fungerer som en gendrivelse af mulige indveninger ift. definitionen af feminisme. Da Watson jo, blandt andre, henvender sig til dem, der stiller sig skeptiske overfor feminisme, er det enormt væsentligt, at hun 'vaccinerer' mod sådanne mulige indveninger.
  3. Læg mærke til leveringen af talen (actio) og de emfatiske tryk på "this has to stop" - det understreger væsentligheden af udsagnet samt kampagnens budskab.
  4. Her ser vi i fremførelsen (se video) et af de menneskelige træk, der karakteriserer Watson som taler. Hun reagerer på et tilråb fra publikum med et smil og fremstår dermed som alt andet end monoton og indstuderet.
  5. Med et personligt udgangspunkt konstruerer hun et narrativ, hvor hun selv er hovedperson. Dette skaber adkomst og kan styrke hendes etos.
  6. Læg mærke til denne passage i videooptagelsen af talen; her udviser Watson stærk patos.
  7. Her ses brug af anafor (gentagelse af "I think it is right"). Det forstærker budskabet og gør det nemt at huske.
  8. Her bruges igen anafor med gentagelsen af "didn't". Udover at gøre budskabet let at huske giver det talen et rytmisk præg. Se evt. videooptagelse.
  9. Dette er også en form for gendrivelse og henvender sig til dem, der nægter at tilkendegive sig som feminister. Watson understreger, at det væsentlige ikke er, hvad man kalder sig, men hvad man kæmper for. Dette er et meget dialogsøgende element, som virker godt.
  10. Gendrivelse ift. mulige indvendinger om relevans for drenge og mænd. Ved at understrege at der heller ikke er ligestilling for mænd, sikrer hun sig, at det også er muligt for dem at identificere sig med og engagere sig i sagen.
  11. Her 'vaccinerer' hun mod eventuelle indvendinger vedrørende køn. Det har en inkluderende effekt.
  12. Her formulerer Watson hovedpointen i én sætning. Det er vellykket, at denne er formuleret så konkret.
  13. Her gør Watson god brug af det, man i retorikken kalder decorum - at man som taler må tilpasse sine valg af ord til situationen ud fra et etisk perspektiv. Watson italesætter det, som mange måske tænker, og det fungerer samtidig som en argumentatorisk 'vaccination' af dem, som måske kunne bruge det som argument imod hende.
  14. Denne kommentar fungerer etos-opbyggende - hun betragter sig selv udefra, hvilket udviser en ydmyghed overfor situationen.
  15. Et retorisk spørgsmål, som kan virke modtagerinvolverende - og iøvrigt er blevet en form for slogan for kampagnen. Formuleringen kan kaldes en kiasme - en stilistisk figur, der fremkommer ved krydsstilling af tilsvarende sætningsdele.
  16. Her gør Watson brug af logos-appel, hvilket er godt for balancen i talen, da den ellers overvejende er patos- og etos-præget. Dog kan man som retorisk kritiker stille spørgsmål ved, hvor informationen kommer fra. Det ville fungere mere optimalt, hvis der var knyttet en kommentar til, hvor hun finder belæg for disse påstande.
  17. Her henvender hun sig til en anden del af publikum - nemlig dem, der allerede praktiserer ligestilling.
  18. Igen gøres brug af kiasmen fra før, hvilket fungerer som en stærk udgang på talen.
  19. Emma Watson er kendt i rollen som Hermione fra Harry Potter.
  20. Emma Watson er kendt i rollen som Hermione fra Harry Potter. Bemærkningen styrker hendes etos; hun betragter sig selv udefra og udviser ydmyghed overfor talesituationen.

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