Kaylen Guzzi
Media 260
Professor Bill Sonnega
21 October 2014
The Mediated Persona Leading to Pro-Social Change
Recently on Saturday, September 20th, Emma Watson delivered an impassioned and
powerful speech launching a new feminist campaign called HeForShe. Emma Watson is a recent
graduate of Brown University and was appointed the Goodwill Ambassador for United Nations
Women about 6 months ago. Watsons speech has been received well by viewers at the UN and
online. Her launching has caused the HeForShe campaign to grow 38 times larger since the
delivery of her speech gauged by the number of pledges (September 21 October 12). Watson
extended her invitation to join the campaign along to weary females not wanting to continue
fighting and also to the other half of the population (males), encouraging all to help end gender
inequality. Watson also attempted to abolish the negative stigma frequently associated with
feminism, namely man-hating, reiterating that the word feminism needs to be redefined. Emma
Watson has a more famous mediated persona, Hermione Granger. Watson starred in all eight
Harry Potter films, which started in 2001 and concluded in 2011 (IMDB). Although Watson has
openly expressed her frustration with this persona exceeding her (Gatecrasher), in regard to
HeForShe, thus far Hermione Granger has aided to positively promote the campaign; the
mediated persona of Watson lends to paving the way for pro-social change.
Emma Watsons speech was a personal reflection on gender, feminism, equality, and
activism. Her speech lasted close to ten minutes in length and was delivered in three parts, each
portion geared toward a different audience segment. She first addressed the issue of what
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feminism has become, adding that The more I spoke about feminism, the more I realized that
fighting for womens 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, (Watson, 1:50-2:11). She whole-heartedly
believes that this is the problem holding back so many women from fighting for gender equality;
they do not want to oppress, and therefore they choose not to fight. Watson remarked, 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, (2:152:34). This was Watsons plea for women to join the movement because females deserve to be
treated equally and fairly; it is a females natural-born right that should be considered universal
across all nations, yet in fact no country in the world has to-date achieved gender equality.
About seven minutes into her speech, Watson then carefully addressed the other half of the
population.
Men, I would like to take this opportunity to extend your formal invitation. Gender
equality is your issue, too, (Watson, 6:57-7:22). Watson believes that men are suffering from
pre-described gender norms as well, yet she believes this could change if men fight for
equalizing gender. We dont 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, (Watson, 8:20-8:35). Watson expressed that the idea and image of what a man
should be has been greatly distorted by society, and the collective self-esteem of men has been
made fragile as a direct result of this. Watson reflects how the mans role is undervalued in
contemporary society, and she shared a personal anecdote about her father. Watsons parents are
divorced and although a father figure was necessary during her childhood, the need for a fathers
role in society has diminished in recent years. Watson also shared a shocking statistic that
suicide is the biggest killer of men ages 20-49 in the United Kingdom, likely due to the fact that
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they are imprisoned by these stereotypes. She said that if men do not feel the need to be
aggressive to be accepted by society, then women will not feel the need to be submissive. If men
have this as a universal understanding, then they will have the ability to break free of their
former societal roles. The third part of her speech addressed the watching audience as a whole.
Watsons third speech portion was a cry for freedom and equality for both genders.
Watson tried to equalize the playing field for both men and women stating that everyone should
feel free to be mutually sensitive and strong. She claims that society can accomplish this if
gender can be placed on a spectrum instead of a set of opposing ideals. Watson provided an
inspiring idea of why and how men and women should break out of gender stereotypes:
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 (9:34-9:55).
Watson remarked that the movement for gender equality has long struggled because there has not
been a unifying word or movement, until now. She concluded her speech by reintroducing the
HeForShe campaign, saying this is the exact type of movement that society needs; it will allow
all to collectively break away from gender inequality.
Emma Watson turned to her 15 million Twitter followers the day after her speech to
further promote the HeForShe campaign. Kristin Harris, writer at BuzzFeed, posted an article on
September 22nd titled 11 Powerful Celebrity Tweets Supporting the #HeForShe Campaign.
Following suit of most BuzzFeed articles, there are brightly colored photos, screenshots, and
GIFS, each followed by a sentence or two summarizing what happened. Harris took screenshots
of some celebrities Tweets reacting to Emma Watsons urge for all to take the HeForShe pledge.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Hollywood actor and writer, responded to Watsons invitation from the
Twitter handle @hitRECordJoe: I consider myself a Feminist & I wanna know what #Feminism
means to you. Watch + Contribute, (11:56 AM September 22 2014). Levitt posted a fiveminute video about why he considered himself a feminist, and how he believes women are
essential and beneficial to society. He further posed a question to viewers, asking if they do or
do not consider themselves a feminist (Harris). Douglas Booth, Miley Cyrus co-star in LOL,
responded with a photo of himself holding a #HeForShe sign and accompanying Tweet: I am a
passionate supporter of gender equality. @EmWatson @HeForShe @UN_Women (4:12 PM
September 20 2014). Many other celebrities Tweets were included in this post, such as Forest
Whitaker, Sara Ramirez, and Wolf Blitzer. Aside from Hollywood actors, regular people were
also highly active on Twitter with the hashtag #HeForShe in the three weeks that followed
Watsons speech. Concluding with some metrics, @EmWatson tweeted on October 8 2014:
Between 20th Sep & 2nd Oct there were 1.1 million #HeForShe tweets from 750K different
users, reaching 1.2 BILLION unique Twitter users, (6:37 AM). The buzz surrounding this
campaign has not subsided in the Twitterverse and likely will not taper off for some time.
Although this article does an excellent job capturing reactions of many notable
Hollywood faces, it does not elaborate on how one could get involved in the movement or
further impart basic HeForShe principles. This is likely because of the nature of this mediums
choice for content; BuzzFeed is intended to be a short yet informative piece, containing a variety
of news genres. Twitter is similar in that it constricts one to a 140-character limit, which does
not allow a lot of room to expand thoughts or give profound in-depth analysis of an issue.
Although a concise format is not what is necessary for extensive, pressing issues, it is the
shortened design of these mediums that draw greater readership numbers. It is likely why many
people use these two mediums for their sources of news, because they are short and sweet
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summaries of current happenings. Although all of the Tweets that were featured in this article
were condensed to a sentence and the text of the article was lacking a lot of analysis, the content
of both still held enough power and influence to get the ball rolling on promoting the HeForShe
campaign and gender equality.
On September 26, 2014, Cathy Youngs article, Sorry, Emma Watson, but HeForShe Is
Rotten for Men, was published in Time magazine. She posed the idea that until feminism
recognizes discrimination against men, the movement for gender equality will be incomplete
(Young). Young began her article stating that Gender equality is your issue too, which is how
Watson began the second portion of her speech. Young takes issue with the fact that HeForShe
addresses the need to stop violence and discrimination against women, but it does not pose how
that issue affects males. Watson clearly believes that feminism is about equality and not
bashing men Unfortunately, feminism in its present form has too often ignored sexist biases
against males (Young). Young fails to recognize that throughout the entirety of Watsons
speech, Emma was clearly asking that the word feminism be redefined by all, and that it no
longer be about man-hating. Young thinks that there needs to be an honest conversation that
allows men to be involved when it comes to talking about the issues that men face as a product
of gender inequality, such as being emotional. Young fails to mention that this is another point
that was strongly reinforced within Watsons speech, as she stressed that inequality can be put to
an end through HeForShe; it is about gender equality for all. Young also feels strongly that it is
necessary within society for a reworking of parenting roles, stating that women need to give up
the role of being primary caregivers. She concludes her article by creating her desire to reshape
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the campaign, asking that it needs to not be a movement of he for she, but she and he for us,
(Young).
Although the substance of Youngs rebuttal contained the large issue of mens rights
being ignored through current feminism, she completely disregarded Watsons heavy emphasis in
her speech on the importance of men and how vulnerable they are as well. Young seemed to not
give enough credit to Watson for the issues that her speech did cover and to the extent that
Watsons speech promoted men as well. Her speech was not entirely about women; a decent
portion addressed the need to change gender stereotypes by which men are imprisoned. The
medium of Youngs article is very lengthy and is intended to be extremely informative, which her
article definitely accomplished. Youngs article was very well versed while portraying a
somewhat biased point of view. This is due to the mediums nature, not all writers will share in a
common opinion this type of article is meant to allow one to have freedom of expression.
Although Watsons HeForShe campaign positively exploded, there has been next to
nonexistent backlash coming from mainstream media. The 4chan message board threatened to
leak nude photos of Watson, claiming that these would ruin her credibility as the ambassador for
the United Nations Women. She also received hate mail from disgruntled people, and rumors of
her death were posted on Twitter under #RIPEmma hashtag (Emma Watson Hate Campaign).
Also, in the past couple years, popular news outlets have responded to a lot of contemporary
media culture events with satire. For example, Sarah Palin was impersonated on Saturday Night
Live by Tina Fey to John Stewart of The Daily Show, acting out just about everything in a satirist
light. Watson has not been represented in a similar manner yet, although it has only been three
weeks since delivering her speech, and there is no telling what the future will bring within the
entertainment world. Her speech was quite revolutionary within our contemporary culture
because of the success experienced by a celebrity speaking in regards to activism, and yet it has
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only increased Watsons overall credibility. Watsons mediated persona, Hermione Granger, has
sparked interest in this revolutionary feminist campaign globally. The credibility and importance
of Watson in popular film culture, as well as her maintained fame, has likely sparked the large
increase in the campaign.
Harry Potter / Emma Watson fans worldwide are more likely to tune in and listen to their
favorite talking head campaign promoter. De Zengotita reflects on talking head political
figures and says, Talking head panelists are also performing, but theyre supposed to be
performing. Their personalities are the characters they play and vice versa Thats why it is so
easy for them to do cameos in which they play themselves in movies (137). This is the exact
reason why Watson has been the perfect figure to represent HeForShe. In the real-real, Watson
plays herself; although she is not a wizard, she maintained similar mannerisms and
characteristics that Granger heavily portrays throughout the entire Harry Potter series. Watson
embodies her persona, Granger, perfectly.
Escaping a persona can be a challenging task for many celebrities in recent years. Miley
Cyrus was desperately trying to escape an image associated with her persona of Hannah
Montana, and she ended up going off the deep end a bit. Mileys image changed from an
innocent Disney Channel star, to that of a party girl getting attention for her tongue and bleach
blonde hair cut. This new image gave Miley a whole different demographic fan base, completely
moving away from young girls in the 7-12 year-old crowd. Hermione Granger in the Harry
Potter series is quite a unique character; she attracts fans all across the demographic spectrum,
but mainly millennials, both boys and girls alike. Although Watson has openly expressed her
frustration with this persona exceeding her (Gatecrasher), in regard to HeForShe, thus far
Hermione has aided to positively promote the campaign on a very large scale.
In almost every single article produced about Emma Watsons recent speech, comments
were somehow tied to her ever-present persona, Hermione Granger. Although a valid point to
argue that this could be perceived as irksome, it is in fact the most beneficial tactic for this
campaigns promotion. Watson even joked around in a humble and self-deprecating style, saying
she betted that many were wondering who this Harry Potter girl was and why she was speaking
at the United Nations. A writer in Vanity Fair said that the Harry Potter association will always
follow Watson. Even UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon joked, Shes been waving a magic
wand. I hope you use your magic wand to end violence against women! (Robinson).
Hermione Granger is a girl in the entire series who holds her own with the boys, is independent,
intelligent, and strong willed, much like Emma Watson in the real-real. Thomas De Zengotita,
author of Mediated, says that, mainstream political actors and story lines lost dramatic
credibility as pop culture expressions of identity became more purely attitudinal, stylistic, and
life-stylistic (136). Though De Zengotita is correct, he does not consider the case where the
actor embodies a persona, like Emma Watson.
It is true that there have been many actors who have played themselves in shows or
movies, just like Hermione and Emma conflate each other well. Watsons persona has surpassed
her in many ways, yet the popularity of Hermione Granger make HeForShe a perfect fit for
Emma Watson; she does not need to flee from a persona, for she is her persona in the flesh.
From the real Emma Watson to the mediated Hermione Granger, HeForShe can expect to see
excellent results coming from her persona. This mediated campaign figure is currently leading
our society in the direction of gender equality for all. Watsons speech was an impassioned
delivery of what she believes our world needs: to move in the direction of gender equality, that
Harry Potter girl really did her job well.
Bibliography:
Gatecrasher. "Emma Watson's College Life Proves to Be Less than Magical as Actress Leaves
Brown." NY Daily News. N.p., 21 Apr. 2011. Web. 20 Oct. 2014.
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"Emma Watson's Plea for Gender Equality Triggers Hate Campaign | World | DW.DE |
24.09.2014." DW.DE. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2014. <http://www.dw.de/emma-watsonsplea-for-gender-equality-triggers-hate-campaign/a-17950037>.
Harris, Kristin. "11 Powerful Celebrity Tweets Supporting The #HeForShe
Campaign."BuzzFeed. N.p., 22 Sept. 2014. Web. 20 Oct. 2014.
<http://www.buzzfeed.com/kristinharris/11-powerful-celebrity-tweets-supporting-theheforshe-campaig#2jdjjft>.
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<http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0241527/>.
Robinson, Joanna. "Emma Watson Delivers Game-Changing Speech on Feminism for the
UN." Vanity Fair. N.p., 26 Sept. 2014. Web. 18 Oct. 2014.
<http://www.vanityfair.com/vf-hollywood/2014/09/emma-watson-un-speech-feminism>.
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Watson, Emma. "HeForShe." New York, New York. 20 Sept. 2014. Youtube. Web. 21 Sept. 2014.
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkjW9PZBRfk>.
Young, Cathy. "Sorry, Emma Watson, but HeForShe Is Rotten for Men." Time. Time, 26 Sept.
2014. Web. 19 Oct. 2014. <http://time.com/3432838/emma-watson-feminism-menwomen/>.
Zengotita, Thomas De. Mediated: How the Media Shapes Your World and the Way You Live in It.
New York: Bloomsbury, 2005. Print.
