Monday, October 3, 2016
Audience for "Equal Rights for Women"
The audience of any type of rhetorical statement is key to how the author decides to perform. In the case of, "Equal Rights for Women" by Shirley Chisholm the tone and examples are specified towards her audience of government officials and women. Chisholm gave this speech in the House of Representatives on May 21, 1969. She was beseeching the lawmakers to make themselves aware of the sexist discrimination blatantly present in the work place. Chisholm's examples are based off work place experiences for example a woman being placed in simplistic positions. The audience assumably has a political and highly educated background. This would affect the tone Chisholm utilizes to most accurately convey her message. Chisholm's tone could be described as controlled, straight to the point as well as factual. By using facts and eloquent sentences Chisholm is able to demonstrate to her audience that she is a well- learned women who is qualified to speak about this. The tone also demands attention of the men and make them see Chisholm as an equal. Taking into consideration the audience is vital to executing the most affective speech. In this case the audience in 1969, when woman and african americans were treated as lesser, Chisholm had to direct her argument to the lawmakers, otherwise known as white males.
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I think the fact that her audience were many of her peers in the government made her argument more effective. She can relate to the other members of Congress, though many were not women, and she could recognize their common judgments of equal rights. This also allowed her to directly address the biggest issues between feminism and the government.
ReplyDeleteI personally wonder what a Shirley Chisom speech to an assembly of all black women would sound like. Would she retain her same measured yet assertive tone, or would a sympathetic audience drive her to be more frank in her description of the problems? The odds are strong she adopted a more reserved tone to appeal more to an audience of predominantly rich white men.
ReplyDeleteI agree her audience consists of government officials as she is advocating for the Equal Rights Amendment. I would not be surprised if many people were motivated to support the amendment's ratification because the broad spectrum of audience it was targeted towards.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that Shirley Chisholm's speech was directed toward women because even though women at this time could take inspiration from it, Chisholm was speaking to a group of government officials which did not have a lot of woman in it. So, I think that's why her tone was direct and motivated rather than sympathetic; because she was not directing her speech to women.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that Shirley Chisholm's speech was directed toward women because even though women at this time could take inspiration from it, Chisholm was speaking to a group of government officials which did not have a lot of woman in it. So, I think that's why her tone was direct and motivated rather than sympathetic; because she was not directing her speech to women.
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