Women’s Rights: Genre Analysis of a Speech and a Web Blog
For countless years, women have had to live in a world where men are believed to be superior to women. It took great courage and audacity from feminists and advocators to get to where society is today in terms of gender equality. Even though the U.S. has made tremendous progress in establishing equality between genders, the fight for equality is far from over. Women these days still suffer from sexism, a substantial wage gap, a glass ceiling, being viewed and used as sexual objects, lack of political power, and so on. Women and feminists need to continue advocating women’s rights, so further progress can be established.
A big contributor to women’s rights is the very own President of the United States, Barrack Obama. In Obama’s speech for the Presidential Debate broadcasted by YouTube in a video called “President Obama on Women’s Rights- 2012 Presidential Debate in Hempstead, New York”, Obama used distinct strategies of oral communication to advocate for women’s rights and to help him convey his message effectively. Another concerned advocator for women’s rights is Deborah J. Vagins, who wrote a web blog called “The State of Women’s Rights: 2012 or 1963?” stating her opinion on the matter.
In her web blog, Vagins used specific tactics of written communication to adequately proclaim her message. Although both Obama and Vagins are promoting women’s rights, the information they presented had different impacts on their audience because of their differences in genre, the different strategies they used, and their approach in the matter. Throughout this essay, both genres will be analyzed to determine the different strategies each genre use, and which of the two genres was most effective in communicating their message.
Audience and Purpose
Barrack Obama’s presidential debate speech was intended for all citizens of the U.S., but especially appeals to women and feminists since Obama is advocating women’s rights. In addition, the speech was intended for a mature audience, 18 years and older, since that is the age requirement for voting in political elections. Therefore the discourse community of the speech is the political community since it is a presidential debate. The intended audience may have already been familiar with Obama’s principles, in regards to how he supported women’s rights with the passing of the Lilly Ledbetter Bill, from the previous term he served as President of the U.S. However, female citizens might have hoped and expected to be mentioned
and promised protection from prejudice by the candidates running for election. Throughout Obama’s two minute and 44 second speech, he promised exactly what his audience wanted, his support for women’s equality. The purpose of Obama’s debate was to persuade U.S. citizens to elect him for a second term as President and to inform the audience that if he was elected for a second term, he would continue to advocate women’s rights just like he did with the Lilly Ledbetter Act.
The web blog “The State of Women’s Rights: 2012 or 1963?” by Deborah J. Vagins, is intended for a mature audience as well since her opinion piece, like Obama’s, deals with women’s struggle to become an equal rights citizen and appeals to people interested in the political campaign. The discourse community for this blog would be the feminist and political community. The intended audience of this genre may already be aware of the issues women face on a daily basis, but would like to know why rights women had already fought for and earned are being disputed once again. This web blog
takes around two to three minutes to read, depending on the reading speed of the audience, but unlike Obama’s speech the web blog might take about a minute or so to process the information. The amount of time it takes to read the web blog could cause the audience to lose interest in the subject. The purpose of this web blog was to inform the audience of the absurd debates political candidates were disputing, concerning the repeal of laws already enforced, which protect women’s rights, but was also meant to persuade the audience to let their voice be heard in the fall elections about the injustice to women being committed. Although both genres appeal to the same audience, the feminist and political community, they have very different methods of displaying their information and therefore different levels of effectiveness.
Rhetorical Issues: Ethos, Pathos, and Logos
Barrack Obama right away starts off his speech by giving the audience a little personal knowledge about his family. Obama reminisces about the struggles his mother and grandmother faced in a harsh society dominated by men and describes to the audience the glass ceiling his grandmother hit when she would train her future bosses of the bank she worked in. This was a very good tactic that Obama used to increase the effectiveness of his speech because his use of pathos evoked the feeling of sympathy and built a connection with the audience. Now, the audience feels safe with Obama because they feel Obama understands the unfairness of the situation since it happened to a close family of his. Obama also attempted to induce the emotion of appreciation and support his authenticity in the topic of women’s rights by mentioning how he advocates women’s rights, like the Lilly Ledbetter Bill he signed, which helped decrease the wage discrepancies between
genders. In regards to ethos, Obama’s previous term as President of the U.S. really strengthened his association with the audience because the audience felt compelled to trust him since he was a good leader in his first term of Presidency. Also, the fact that the presidential debate was broadcasted live on ABC, CBS, CNN, FOX, NBC, and C-Span channels added to the ethos of the speech since all of the channels are reliable at broadcasting news and political events. In reference to logos, Obama used evidence to show how he persuaded the government to give 60 billion dollars of Pell Grants directly to college students, including women, and skip giving the money to middlemen, like banks who give out loans, in order to increase the
amount of students that can afford an education and help them advance in the business world. All the evidence Obama used throughout his speech was reliable because his actions concerning the Lilly Ledbetter Bill and the Pell Grants was and still is a renowned fact.
The first thing the audience notices from the web blog “The State of Women’s Rights: 2012 or 1963?” is the subtitle at the top of the web page that states Deborah J. Vagins job position at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). According to the web blog, Vagins is the Senior Legislative Counsel on civil rights issues for the ACLU. Vagins’s position as senior
counsel adds credibility to her blog because she has knowledge of the civil liberties issues of the U.S. Furthermore, Vagins used language features, like adding links to certain keywords, to make her web blog look elegant and professional. As she commences her blog, Vagins describes how instead of debating what new laws need to be enforced in order for women to advance in life and become an equal citizen, society finds itself re-litigating laws that had already secured basic rights for women. In the first and second paragraphs, Vagins attempts to agitate the audience so they will oppose presidential candidates who dispute the repeal of old equal rights laws that were already settled and enforced. Then, Vagins gave statistics of unequal paying wages and used evidence as logos, like the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Equal Pay Act of 1963, to support her argument that improvements need to be made to current fair pay laws instead of repealing them altogether. At
last, Vagins once again used pathos to induce the emotion of pity in the audience by using the words “should anyone who has done the work to earn a dollar, be told they are only worth a fraction of that? Isn’t that a lesson we all learned 50 years ago?” (Vagins, 2012, paragraph 5), because she wanted her audience to see women’s perspective about their pay discrepancies compared to men’s. Both genres are completely different from each other even though they are disputing the same topic; Obama focused more on relating to his audience by telling personal stories of his private life and giving first-hand accounts of the actions he took to support women’s rights, while Vagins gave her opinion about the new issues arising about women’s rights and used examples to support her argument.
Structure
The speech genre chosen allowed Obama to express himself freely and more efficiently. Unlike written communication, public speaking is an easy way of communicating large amounts of information in small periods of time. The oral genre was chosen to keep the audience interested in the women’s rights topic and since the speech was passed on television and posted on YouTube, it reached a way broader audience than written communication could have reached. The way the information was organized in the speech also helped convey the message of advocating for women’s rights. First, Obama found common ground with the audience, by comparing his family’s struggle to many other women’s struggle. Then, Obama informed the audience of the ways he has shown his support for women’s rights like the signing of the Lilly Ledbetter Bill and the Pell Grants. At last, Obama talked about the importance of fighting for women’s equal rights, because discrimination not only affects them but their whole families, and promised his continuance of advocacy for women’s rights in the next term of Presidency, for he does not tolerate discrimination. The oral communication genre had some limitations as well, for example, Obama’s speech did not flow as smoothly as written communication would have and required the audience to listen carefully to the presentation.
Deborah J. Vagins chose the web blog genre because it allowed her to state large amounts of information. Although the genre gave Vagins complete freedom of expression, her web blog was probably not as effective at advocating women’s rights as Obama’s speech due to the fact that web blogs normally do not reach broad audiences because people have to look in the web specifically for the blog or topic. The structure and organization of the blog were critical aspects in the prosperity of the blog. First, Deborah began the blog by easing the audience into the topic of resurfacing women’s rights debates. Then, she gave an example of a currently popular debate of equal pay, and gave statistics of the unequal paying wages. Next, Deborah stated the absurdness of the debates because they ensured basic equal rights for women, which should not have been in question, and hoped society would remember the lesson they learned 50 years ago when the same dispute was in question. Again, both genres show differences in structure; Obama’s genre allowed him to reach and connect with a broad audience, while Vagins genre only allowed her to reach and inform a limited audience.
Style/Language
Barrack Obama used very formal, eloquent, and rather professional language throughout his speech since he was speaking at a Presidential Campaign. Obama even used special jargon for his speech, for example words like glass ceiling, Lilly Ledbetter Bill, Supreme Court, etc. The specialized vocabulary Obama used helped make his speech more effective because it showed Obama’s knowledge and wisdom about the women’s rights subject. Other language features that made Obama’s speech successful were the loud, clear, and assertive tone of voice he used, the eye contact he made with the audience, and the overall flow of the speech. All of these factors were crucial for the successful delivery of Obama’s speech.
Deborah J. Vagins used formal language as well throughout her web blog. Although the blog is just stating the opinion of Deborah about the presidential debates, she used a rather formal language for a journal entry because it added to her credibility as a women’s rights advocator. Some examples of the jargon she used in the blog include; Civil Rights Act of 1964, Paycheck Fairness Act, etc. In addition, Vagins included other language features to help her blog look polished and professional, like adding links, of other articles where she got her facts from, to a few keywords and highlighting them in a bluish color to emphasize the importance of them. Although both genres showed professionalism and eloquence in their
communication, each expressed their formality in different ways. Also, both genres used different jargon even though they are advocating to the same discourse communities.
Conclusion
After the careful analysis of Barrack Obama’s “President Obama on Women’s Rights- 2012 Presidential Debate in Hempstead, New York” speech genre and Deborah J. Vagins “The State of Women’s Rights: 2012 or 1963?” web blog genre, it is clear that Obama’s genre was more effective than Vagins’s genre. Not only did Obama’s speech reach a far broader audience than Vagins, but he was far more formal since he was speaking at a political campaign, chose a better structure for his genre since he tried to understand the struggles of the audience, had an advantage over Vagins in terms of credibility, and effectively used the rhetorical strategies of ethos, pathos, and logos. It is astonishing to see the impact
genres can have on the success of discourse. Choosing the right genre to communicate is the foundation to advocating a message successfully.
References
B. Obama. (2012, October 17). President Obama on Women’s Rights- 2012 Presidential Debate in Hempstead, New York
[Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XM0KuSrrsDk
D. J. Vagins. (2012, April 30). The State of Women’s Rights: 2012 or 1963? [Web blog comment]. Retrieved from
http://www.aclulibertywatch.org/content/state-womens-rights-2012-or-1963
For countless years, women have had to live in a world where men are believed to be superior to women. It took great courage and audacity from feminists and advocators to get to where society is today in terms of gender equality. Even though the U.S. has made tremendous progress in establishing equality between genders, the fight for equality is far from over. Women these days still suffer from sexism, a substantial wage gap, a glass ceiling, being viewed and used as sexual objects, lack of political power, and so on. Women and feminists need to continue advocating women’s rights, so further progress can be established.
A big contributor to women’s rights is the very own President of the United States, Barrack Obama. In Obama’s speech for the Presidential Debate broadcasted by YouTube in a video called “President Obama on Women’s Rights- 2012 Presidential Debate in Hempstead, New York”, Obama used distinct strategies of oral communication to advocate for women’s rights and to help him convey his message effectively. Another concerned advocator for women’s rights is Deborah J. Vagins, who wrote a web blog called “The State of Women’s Rights: 2012 or 1963?” stating her opinion on the matter.
In her web blog, Vagins used specific tactics of written communication to adequately proclaim her message. Although both Obama and Vagins are promoting women’s rights, the information they presented had different impacts on their audience because of their differences in genre, the different strategies they used, and their approach in the matter. Throughout this essay, both genres will be analyzed to determine the different strategies each genre use, and which of the two genres was most effective in communicating their message.
Audience and Purpose
Barrack Obama’s presidential debate speech was intended for all citizens of the U.S., but especially appeals to women and feminists since Obama is advocating women’s rights. In addition, the speech was intended for a mature audience, 18 years and older, since that is the age requirement for voting in political elections. Therefore the discourse community of the speech is the political community since it is a presidential debate. The intended audience may have already been familiar with Obama’s principles, in regards to how he supported women’s rights with the passing of the Lilly Ledbetter Bill, from the previous term he served as President of the U.S. However, female citizens might have hoped and expected to be mentioned
and promised protection from prejudice by the candidates running for election. Throughout Obama’s two minute and 44 second speech, he promised exactly what his audience wanted, his support for women’s equality. The purpose of Obama’s debate was to persuade U.S. citizens to elect him for a second term as President and to inform the audience that if he was elected for a second term, he would continue to advocate women’s rights just like he did with the Lilly Ledbetter Act.
The web blog “The State of Women’s Rights: 2012 or 1963?” by Deborah J. Vagins, is intended for a mature audience as well since her opinion piece, like Obama’s, deals with women’s struggle to become an equal rights citizen and appeals to people interested in the political campaign. The discourse community for this blog would be the feminist and political community. The intended audience of this genre may already be aware of the issues women face on a daily basis, but would like to know why rights women had already fought for and earned are being disputed once again. This web blog
takes around two to three minutes to read, depending on the reading speed of the audience, but unlike Obama’s speech the web blog might take about a minute or so to process the information. The amount of time it takes to read the web blog could cause the audience to lose interest in the subject. The purpose of this web blog was to inform the audience of the absurd debates political candidates were disputing, concerning the repeal of laws already enforced, which protect women’s rights, but was also meant to persuade the audience to let their voice be heard in the fall elections about the injustice to women being committed. Although both genres appeal to the same audience, the feminist and political community, they have very different methods of displaying their information and therefore different levels of effectiveness.
Rhetorical Issues: Ethos, Pathos, and Logos
Barrack Obama right away starts off his speech by giving the audience a little personal knowledge about his family. Obama reminisces about the struggles his mother and grandmother faced in a harsh society dominated by men and describes to the audience the glass ceiling his grandmother hit when she would train her future bosses of the bank she worked in. This was a very good tactic that Obama used to increase the effectiveness of his speech because his use of pathos evoked the feeling of sympathy and built a connection with the audience. Now, the audience feels safe with Obama because they feel Obama understands the unfairness of the situation since it happened to a close family of his. Obama also attempted to induce the emotion of appreciation and support his authenticity in the topic of women’s rights by mentioning how he advocates women’s rights, like the Lilly Ledbetter Bill he signed, which helped decrease the wage discrepancies between
genders. In regards to ethos, Obama’s previous term as President of the U.S. really strengthened his association with the audience because the audience felt compelled to trust him since he was a good leader in his first term of Presidency. Also, the fact that the presidential debate was broadcasted live on ABC, CBS, CNN, FOX, NBC, and C-Span channels added to the ethos of the speech since all of the channels are reliable at broadcasting news and political events. In reference to logos, Obama used evidence to show how he persuaded the government to give 60 billion dollars of Pell Grants directly to college students, including women, and skip giving the money to middlemen, like banks who give out loans, in order to increase the
amount of students that can afford an education and help them advance in the business world. All the evidence Obama used throughout his speech was reliable because his actions concerning the Lilly Ledbetter Bill and the Pell Grants was and still is a renowned fact.
The first thing the audience notices from the web blog “The State of Women’s Rights: 2012 or 1963?” is the subtitle at the top of the web page that states Deborah J. Vagins job position at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). According to the web blog, Vagins is the Senior Legislative Counsel on civil rights issues for the ACLU. Vagins’s position as senior
counsel adds credibility to her blog because she has knowledge of the civil liberties issues of the U.S. Furthermore, Vagins used language features, like adding links to certain keywords, to make her web blog look elegant and professional. As she commences her blog, Vagins describes how instead of debating what new laws need to be enforced in order for women to advance in life and become an equal citizen, society finds itself re-litigating laws that had already secured basic rights for women. In the first and second paragraphs, Vagins attempts to agitate the audience so they will oppose presidential candidates who dispute the repeal of old equal rights laws that were already settled and enforced. Then, Vagins gave statistics of unequal paying wages and used evidence as logos, like the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Equal Pay Act of 1963, to support her argument that improvements need to be made to current fair pay laws instead of repealing them altogether. At
last, Vagins once again used pathos to induce the emotion of pity in the audience by using the words “should anyone who has done the work to earn a dollar, be told they are only worth a fraction of that? Isn’t that a lesson we all learned 50 years ago?” (Vagins, 2012, paragraph 5), because she wanted her audience to see women’s perspective about their pay discrepancies compared to men’s. Both genres are completely different from each other even though they are disputing the same topic; Obama focused more on relating to his audience by telling personal stories of his private life and giving first-hand accounts of the actions he took to support women’s rights, while Vagins gave her opinion about the new issues arising about women’s rights and used examples to support her argument.
Structure
The speech genre chosen allowed Obama to express himself freely and more efficiently. Unlike written communication, public speaking is an easy way of communicating large amounts of information in small periods of time. The oral genre was chosen to keep the audience interested in the women’s rights topic and since the speech was passed on television and posted on YouTube, it reached a way broader audience than written communication could have reached. The way the information was organized in the speech also helped convey the message of advocating for women’s rights. First, Obama found common ground with the audience, by comparing his family’s struggle to many other women’s struggle. Then, Obama informed the audience of the ways he has shown his support for women’s rights like the signing of the Lilly Ledbetter Bill and the Pell Grants. At last, Obama talked about the importance of fighting for women’s equal rights, because discrimination not only affects them but their whole families, and promised his continuance of advocacy for women’s rights in the next term of Presidency, for he does not tolerate discrimination. The oral communication genre had some limitations as well, for example, Obama’s speech did not flow as smoothly as written communication would have and required the audience to listen carefully to the presentation.
Deborah J. Vagins chose the web blog genre because it allowed her to state large amounts of information. Although the genre gave Vagins complete freedom of expression, her web blog was probably not as effective at advocating women’s rights as Obama’s speech due to the fact that web blogs normally do not reach broad audiences because people have to look in the web specifically for the blog or topic. The structure and organization of the blog were critical aspects in the prosperity of the blog. First, Deborah began the blog by easing the audience into the topic of resurfacing women’s rights debates. Then, she gave an example of a currently popular debate of equal pay, and gave statistics of the unequal paying wages. Next, Deborah stated the absurdness of the debates because they ensured basic equal rights for women, which should not have been in question, and hoped society would remember the lesson they learned 50 years ago when the same dispute was in question. Again, both genres show differences in structure; Obama’s genre allowed him to reach and connect with a broad audience, while Vagins genre only allowed her to reach and inform a limited audience.
Style/Language
Barrack Obama used very formal, eloquent, and rather professional language throughout his speech since he was speaking at a Presidential Campaign. Obama even used special jargon for his speech, for example words like glass ceiling, Lilly Ledbetter Bill, Supreme Court, etc. The specialized vocabulary Obama used helped make his speech more effective because it showed Obama’s knowledge and wisdom about the women’s rights subject. Other language features that made Obama’s speech successful were the loud, clear, and assertive tone of voice he used, the eye contact he made with the audience, and the overall flow of the speech. All of these factors were crucial for the successful delivery of Obama’s speech.
Deborah J. Vagins used formal language as well throughout her web blog. Although the blog is just stating the opinion of Deborah about the presidential debates, she used a rather formal language for a journal entry because it added to her credibility as a women’s rights advocator. Some examples of the jargon she used in the blog include; Civil Rights Act of 1964, Paycheck Fairness Act, etc. In addition, Vagins included other language features to help her blog look polished and professional, like adding links, of other articles where she got her facts from, to a few keywords and highlighting them in a bluish color to emphasize the importance of them. Although both genres showed professionalism and eloquence in their
communication, each expressed their formality in different ways. Also, both genres used different jargon even though they are advocating to the same discourse communities.
Conclusion
After the careful analysis of Barrack Obama’s “President Obama on Women’s Rights- 2012 Presidential Debate in Hempstead, New York” speech genre and Deborah J. Vagins “The State of Women’s Rights: 2012 or 1963?” web blog genre, it is clear that Obama’s genre was more effective than Vagins’s genre. Not only did Obama’s speech reach a far broader audience than Vagins, but he was far more formal since he was speaking at a political campaign, chose a better structure for his genre since he tried to understand the struggles of the audience, had an advantage over Vagins in terms of credibility, and effectively used the rhetorical strategies of ethos, pathos, and logos. It is astonishing to see the impact
genres can have on the success of discourse. Choosing the right genre to communicate is the foundation to advocating a message successfully.
References
B. Obama. (2012, October 17). President Obama on Women’s Rights- 2012 Presidential Debate in Hempstead, New York
[Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XM0KuSrrsDk
D. J. Vagins. (2012, April 30). The State of Women’s Rights: 2012 or 1963? [Web blog comment]. Retrieved from
http://www.aclulibertywatch.org/content/state-womens-rights-2012-or-1963