On the 14 February 2014, Ellen Page a nominated Oscar actress came out as gay in a speech that can be recognised as one of the most famous and well known speeches of current times and history. In this essay I will explain how Page’s fame profile and leading influence in the film industry and the world, her vocabulary and language applied in her speech, the deliverance and presentation of the speech and the topic of discrimination amongst the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LBGT) itself contributes to the overall popularity of the speech. It is combinations of the speaker and the words that create memorable speech.
Ellen Page started acting in large movie roles at a young age, causing her to become one of the film’s industries big names. The nominated Oscar movie star has appeared in movies such as Juno, Inception and this year’s upcoming motion picture X Men: Days of Future Past. At only the young age of twenty seven, talking at Human’s Right Campaign Foundation’s Time to THRIVE conference, she publicly halfway through her speech came out as gay. Not only surprising the entire globe she also stood up and passionately supported the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community. “It’s weird because here I am, an actress, representing at least in some sense an industry that places crushing standards on all of us-and not just young people ,everyone.”(Page, E 2014) Openly speaking about her industry and herself as an actress as regards to the large influence and sense of power she has, she displays a sense of responsibility to speak up. In that particular section of her speech, admitting that the film industry has standards for ‘all of us’ she involves everyone into her speech. Not only Ellen’s famous profile adde...
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...h can be seen to make a difference and evoked a reaction amongst the audience. The passion within her voice and body language demonstrated an overwhelming speech, and that including be noted to be one of the many speeches to be known as the greatest in history. Ellen Page’s speech virtually expressed the problems within the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community highlighting features of discrimination that should never be tolerated.
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Ellen Page Joins HRCF's Time to Thrive Conference (2009) [video] Viewed: 15 March 2014, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hlCEIUATzg
Nastasi A 2014, Ellen Page Gives Emotional Coming Out Speech at the Human Rights Campaign’s THRIVE conference, Flavorwire, viewed 1 April 2014, from http://flavorwire.com/newswire/ellen-page-gives-emotional-coming-out-speech-at-the-human-rights-campaigns-thrive-conference/.
Along with ethos and small touch of logos, the author Roxane Gay uses a strength appeal of pathos to persuade her audience onto her argument. “White people will never know the dangers of being black in America, systemic, unequal opportunity, racial profiling, and the constant threat of police violence. Men will never know the dangers of being a woman in America, harassment, sexual violence, legislated bodies. Heterosexuals will never know what it means to experience homophobia.” (Gay). In this paragraph, the author is identify the inequality between racial barriers, genders and sexual orientation which an emotionally involved topic to bring up. How people are treated differently how the way they look, where they come from. Woman would
Sojourner finishes the initial emotional connection with her audience through her religion. By making biblical references, Sojourner’s mostly Christian audience related to her as a fellow Christian and responds more positively to her stance on equality. Through these personal anecdotes, Sojourner invites her audience, who are mostly women suffering from their own forms of discrimination, to realize the injustices of which they too are victims. Sojourner plays on the emotions of her audience in order to grab their attention and their willingness for change by sharing her own personal feelings to which they can relate. Sojourner continues her speech with rhythm and repetition, building up an energy in her voice and audience with a brief personal experience followed each time with that same rhetorical question.
Language is a powerful tool. The artful manipulation of language has sparked countless revolutions and has continuously fueled social progression over the course of human history. In Carmen Vàzquez’s “Appearances,” Vàzquez argues that homophobia is a serious concern in society. She rallies for all people, regardless of sexual orientation, to challenge society’s unyielding gender roles and homophobia. Through the art of persuasion, Carmen Vàzquez blended careful diction, emotional stories, and persuasive structure to aggressively address the problem of homophobia both coherently and effectively.
Her slow yet concise way of speaking, coupled with easy to follow transitions allowed for a speech that was enjoyable to listen to. Her use of examples from her personal life allowed her audience to get a picture of who she was if they did not know, and allowed her to better relate to them by provided examples of how she is related to the college they are graduating from. Her reference to many modern political problems allowed her to bring up her important role as an activist and facilitated further understanding from the audience. While some areas of her speech were weak, such as the longer than needed pauses and her lack of consistent eye contact, to a few points where she didn’t speak clearly enough, the overall picture that was her speech was fairly strong. Looking at this speech, I hope to incorporate some aspects that I failed to include in my previous speeches. Some of these include her use of hand gestures to emphasize and exaggerate certain phrases and topics, and her combined use of appeals. While my initial thoughts going in were “This is boring” and “This is too slow”, it evolved into me wanting to hear more, and overall my defeat in the beginning turned into a victory at the
Hillary Clinton’s speech “Women Rights” transmitted a crucial message to the world and that was to do something about gender inequality. Pathos helped transmit an emotional appeal to the audience and make them see the soft side of Clinton.
“What makes for a livable world?”, and what constitutes the human?”, are two questions Judith Butler inquires in her opening paragraph and throughout her writing that determine the mindsets of individuals throughout our society. Both of these arguments are answered differently, by different persons, within different cultures, yet play a dramatic role in Butler’s view of herself, the LGBT community, and most of all, every other human
During her early life, Hillary Clinton learned that a huge problem across the globe was gender inequality. Women and men were not equal. Men were making more money than women for the same jobs. She believed she could change this. On September 5, 1995 Hillary Clinton gave a speech at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women. Clinton uses powerful rhetoric in order to create an air of sympathy for women among her audience. She is hoping to make the world become more aware of the inequalities women face daily while also making them feel ashamed for their previous actions of discriminating women, which would cause them to change their ways. She uses her speech “Women’s Rights Are Human Rights” to create awareness of the discrimination
Works Cited Kane, Matt. “Transgender characters that changed film and television”. Entertainment Media at GLAAD. 12 November 2013. Web.
One day in May 1988, Rebecca Wight and Claudia Brenner were backpacking on the Appalachian Trail in south central Pennsylvania. Claudia was thirty-one, and Rebecca was twenty-eight. Along the trail, they encountered a stranger who tried to involve them in conversation. Suddenly, the quiet of the afternoon was shattered by gunfire. Claudia was hit in the arm, neck, and face. Rebecca struck in the back and head; the shot in her back exploded her liver and killed her. The stranger, Stephen Roy Carr, shot them because they were lesbians (Oliver 8). There were laws against this of course. However, unfortunately for people who identify as homosexual, not many of these laws were followed for the reason that discrimination against gay people was clearly evident in America. When this incident happened, a social movement was well under way. This movement, of course, was the gay rights movement. One of the earlier accomplishments of the movement was in 1951, when the First National Gay Origination was founded. Yet, during the 1950s, it would have been immensely illegal and dangerous to register any kind of pro-gay organizations (Head). The gay rights movement continues to create and achieve goals even today. Many people did not support the movement; however, fortunately the gay rights movement had many followers from homosexual to straight people all over the country. Some memorable leaders would be Kathy Kozachenko, first openly gay women elected into politics, and Harvey Milk, first openly gay man elected into politics. In 1977 Harvey Milk won a seat in the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. It was there that Milk delivers a famous and inspirational speech which would later be called the “Hope Speech”. The main idea to take away from th...
One way that society defines people is by their affiliation with certain groups. A person’s race, religion, ethnicity, and sexual orientation are just a few groups that are used to define an individual’s personality. Despite this, membership in a particular group does not necessarily dictate all of a person’s experiences. Examples of this can be found by examining the LGBT+ community. Like any group, the LGBT+ community is diverse and ever-changing. Despite having many shared experiences due to their sexualities and gender identities, members of the LGBT+ community all have unique and individual stories. The films Drôle de Félix and Tomboy provide good examples of individuals with unique stories. Though both films follow members of the LGBT+
There are certainly various points in history that can be construed as trailblazing for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community. One event in particular, however, sparked awareness and a call to action that previously could never have been conceptualized in the United States. This unforgettable incident, the Stonewall riots of 1969, altered the public’s view of the gay community and arguably jumpstarted the next revolution in an entirely new civil rights movement.
Sellars, Patricia. "The Business of Being Oprah." Fortune Aug 2002: scr 2-5. Academic Search Elite. Palni Site Search. Goshen College Good Library. 3 Nov. 2002.
The 1990s saw a surge of gay characters in both television and movies. From Ellen Degeneres and her character Ellen Morgan coming out under much scrutiny on the TV show ‘Ellen,’ to Julia Roberts and Rupert Everett comedically playing off each other in the motion picture ‘My Best Friend’s Wedding.’ Sure, gays and lesbians have been around forever, especially in Hollywood. But never has there been a time to be more out. With the popularity of shows like Will and Grace, which feature leading gay characters, as well as Dawson’s Creek
Commencement speeches, which are presented in American graduation ceremonies, aim to inspire and motivate. Successfully, Nora Ephron 's commencement speech addressed to the Wellesley Class of 1996; inspired her audience to "be the heroine of [their '] li[ves], not the victim". Through anecdotes, Ephron explored the differences between her education and the graduates at Wellesley College, to remind the women graduating that whilst society was different in many ways, in particular for women, "there was still a glass ceiling".
In the face of a homophobic society we need creative and critical processes that draw out the complexity of lesbian lives and same sex choices, not a retreat into the comforting myths of heroines and unfractured, impeachable identities