Meaghan Arnold

December 12, 2021

In terms of the most influential social movements throughout history, modern

manifestations of the feminist movement undoubtedly stand out in prominence and importance.

By newly incorporating men as feminist advocates and by bringing awareness to gender issues

affecting men, the current wave of feminism heralds a pivotal moment in the fight for gender

equality defined by male involvement. Many tie this new manifestation of feminism to the

HeForShe Campaign conducted by the United Nation, a campaign which was championed by

UN Women Global Goodwill Ambassador and renowned actress Emma Watson. In a personal

and profound speech for the launching of the HeForShe Campaign, Watson effectively argues for

the need to both revalute feminist goals and to redfine feminism itself. Through the use of

rhetorical situation, the remainder of this essay will serve to analyze the merits of this speech as

an integral part of the new wave of feminism.

Established in 1945 after the Second World War, The United Nations, or the UN as its

more commonly known, boasts over 190 member states and serves as a leader in the awareness

and resolution of global issues (1). One such issue that the UN promotes is the ongoing

prevalence of global gender inequality. In 2010, the United Nations combined 4 distinct parts of

its system to create a sole entity devoted to gender equality and women’s empowerment: UN

Women (2). UN Women serves to aid international governments in the implementation and

revision of policies, provide technical and financial support to those countries as necessary, and

to hold the United Nations system accountable for their own efforts in regards to gender equality.

These roles of the UN Women all contribute to their overall aims of eliminating discrimination

against women, empowering women, and achieving true gender equality in all aspects of life by

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fighting for women at the local, regional, and governmental level. Since its inception, UN

Women has made substantial advancements towards the actualization of these goals, for example

in facilitating the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action as well as the Convention on the

Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (2). Another significant achievement

of the UN Women organization is their acclaimed campaign entitled “HeForShe.” Launched in

2014, this global social movement campaign sought to reevaluate feminism by encouraing “men

and people of all genders to stand in solidarity with women to create a bold, visible, and united

force for gender equality.” (3) Essentially, HeForShe sought to move the narrative of feminism

away from the label of being a “women’s issue” only, and instead to define it as a human rights

issue. Through this inclusive approach in which men act as fellow instigators of gender equality,

HeForShe seeks to achieve its four broad goals: to accelerate women’s economic empowerment,

to support women’s role in peace and security processes, to advance women’s political

participation and leadership, and to eliminate gender based violence (5). This approach to

feminism forever reconstructed narratives and definitions of feminism and encapsulates the

radicalness of the modern feminist movement. A fundamental instigator of the HeForShe

campaign’s success is the involvement of UN Women Global Goodwill Ambassador Emma

Watson in its conception and launching. Although initially the merits of appointing Watson, a

famous British actress best known for her leading role in the Harry Potter franchise, was a source

of controversy, her landmark speech at the launching of HeForShe in 2014 remains a universally

acclaimed moment in the beginnings of the new wave of feminism.

Undoubtedly, the exigence prompting the necessity for Watson’s speech is the pervasive

and urgent issue of gender inequality. UN Women, the institutional backing of HeForShe,

describes some of the problematic manifestations of gender inequality in need of immediate

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addressing. These issues include, but are not limited to, women’s lack of access to suitable

employment, gender wage gaps, denial of health care and education, lack of political

representation, and direct acts of violence and discrimination. These and other issues are so

deeply omnipresent that, as Watson describes in her speech, “no country in the world can yet say

they have achieved gender equality” (4). Despite the indisputable prevalence of gender

inequality and its problematic results, Watson further describes ithe reluctance of individuals in

our society to firmly affirm themselves as feminists. She points out stereotypical assumptions of

feminists as “too strong, too aggressive, isolating, anti-men, and unattractive” and how these

stereotypes result in the damaging rejection of the feminist movement itself (4). Watson then

exemplifies the personal harms these stereotypes inflicted on her, recalling being labelled as

“bossy” when boys were not, being sexualized at a young age, her female friends dropping out of

athletics for the fear of no longer appearing attractive, and her male friends suffering from

inabilities to express their feelings. These personal examples not only bolster Watson’s

credibility in talking about feminism, but also serve as a powerful demonstration of how

common instances of gender inequality are in our society. They effectively convince the

audience of how deeply issues associated discrimination affect even the most seeimingly

privleged members of society. Due to the paradoxical unpopularity of feminism combined with

the damages of not implementing feminist aims, Watson urges for a new approach to feminism.

She utilizes the HeForShe campaign as a common ground for the audience amongst the

controversies and complications of feminism, finishing her argument with the statement, “And if

you still hate the word - it is not the word that is important but the idea and the ambition behind

it” (4). In this way, Watson successfully assesses the components of the feminist movement most

in need of revision and then implements the frustrations over those issues to bolster the

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HeForShe movement’s validity and to encourage her audience to support its aims and become

agents of change.

Along with addressing the exigence for the HeForShe campaign, Watson also establishes

the need for her audience to be involved in the campaign and to care about its goals. What is so

notable about Watson’s inclusion of the audience, however, is the direct addressal of men as

members of her audience. At one point in her speech, Watson even goes so far as to directly

address men, saying “Men - I would like to take this opportunity to extend your formal

invitation. Gender equality is your issue too” (4). By singling out men as necessary components

of the feminist movement, Watson instigates a profound change in the approaches to feminism,

debunking stereotypes of feminism being solely a concern of women. Throughout the entirety of

her speech, she explicitly involves men as an active component of her audience. For example,

when detailing the harmful consequences of gender inequality, Waston pointedly uses examples

of men being harmed by gender stereotypes. Notably, she mentions how mental illness remains

unaddressed in men to the extent that suicide was the leading killer of men in the UK, all due to

the prevelent fear that asking for help is somehow demasculating (4). This and other powerful

examples effectively demonstrate to her audience that feminism is as much a concern for males

as it is for females, further bolstering her incorporation of males as a part of her audience.

Watson then unifies her audience by describing how the deleterious effects of gender inequality

on the respective genders are intertwined rather than two separate entities. She points out how

the aggression of men corresponds to the submission of women, how the expectation of men to

control leads to women as the ones being controlled, and how the strength of men and the

sensitivity of women are viewed as strictly un-transmutable. By incorporating the struggles of

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both genders into a unified struggle faced by all humans, Watson exemplifies the urgency of her

audience to support the HeForShe campaign’s inclusive approach to feminism.

Despite the strengths of her argument, Watson recognizes the constraints of her

credibility due to her associations with acting, a domain seemingly distinct from the gravity of

the United Nations. Watson bluntly addresses this association, stating “You might be thinking

who is this Harry Potter girl? And what is she doing up on stage at the UN?”(4). She then

brilliantly affirms her credibility in giving the speech, as well as furthers the agenda of the

HeForShe campaign, by later following up with the renowned quote, “If not me, who? If not

now, when?”(4). These questions brilliantly erase any doubts surrounding her prerogative in

giving the speech along with any doubts of the audience in whether they should take up the

mantle of supporting the HeForShe agenda. Essentially, by boosting her own credibility she also

boosts the credibility of the audience in being qualified to join her in advocating for the

HeForShe agenda. By directly acknowledging the controversy surrounding her position at this

event, Watson successfully unravels opposing arguments undermining her authority and

message.

Through its distinguished acknowledgement of exigency, audience, and constraints,

Watson’s speech merits inclusion as an example of rhetorical significance. Her effectiveness

allowed for the revolutionary success of the HeForShe inclusive feminism movement,

destigmatized feminism, and sparked a new wave of motivation in promoting global gender

equality.

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 References

(1) United Nations. (n.d.). About Us. United Nations. Retrieved December 10, 2021, from
https://www.un.org/en/about-us.
(2) United Nations. (n.d.). About Us. United Nations. Retrieved December 10, 2021, from
https://www.un.org/en/about-us.
(3) Resources. HeForShe. (n.d.). Retrieved December 10, 2021, from
https://www.heforshe.org/en/movement.
(4) Emma Watson: Gender equality is your issue too. UN Women. (n.d.). Retrieved
December 10, 2021, from
https://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2014/9/emma-watson-gender-equality-is-your
-issue-too.
(5) HeForShe. HeForShe | UN Women USA. (n.d.). Retrieved December 10, 2021, from
https://unwomenusa.org/advocacy-3.