Michael Kimmel is an sociologist who specializes in gender studies and also is the spokesman to the National Organization for Men Against Sexism. Every generation has its’ own major social problem and for my generation it has been gender inequality. In his TEDtalk “Why gender equality is good for everyone – men included” Michael Kimmel argues for men to fight for gender rights to achieve true gender equality to an audience of educated middle aged adults. Kimmel uses personal stories, statistics, repetition, and humor.
Kimmel wants his audience to engage young boys and men in the fight for gender quality by making them aware of gender issues and how to solve them. Kimmel’s strong use of rhetorical strategies and easy going delivery of his speech successfully convey his message of gender activism to his audience. Michael Kimmel’s targeted audience is that of middle aged adults that have at least a high school diploma level of education. Kimmel targets this audience specifically because middle aged educated adults is his most relatable audience.
Kimmel’s speech wouldn’t have necessarily been interpreted as effectively by younger audiences because of Kimmel’s articulate vocabulary and eferences to certain time periods. Kimmel also targets educated middle aged people because they are the adults in society that implement change and raise the next generation. A secondary audience of Kimmel’s speech would be the children of the targeted audience with extra an emphasis on their sons. Kimmel’s purpose is for parents to instill gender equal values into the next generation of adults so that gender equality will become a new norm.
Another secondary audience that Kimmel targets is businessmen and business owners. Kimmel begins his speech by recalling an interaction he had itnessed between a black and white woman. The two women were discussing race, gender, privilege, and how they all ultimately factor into gender inequality. Kimmel highlights the black woman’s response when she said “That’s how privilege works. Privilege is invisible to those who have it. ” It is a luxury”(Kimmel). Kimmel uses the black woman’s argument about privilege to strengthen his appeals to ethos.
He tells the audience this story because it emphasizes one of gender equality’s obstacle, which men’s blindness to the issues and challenges women. This story is relatable to his middle aged udience and allows Kimmel to present himself as an everyday guy opposed to an overly educated New York university professor. Kimmel established a relationship with his audience in the beginning of his lecture which greatly contributes to the lecture’s overall effectiveness. As Kimmel’s lecture moves on, he makes his appeal to ethos by referencing his book “Angry White Men”.
Kimmel mentions his book to highlight another obstacle in the way of gender equality, “confronting men’s sense of entitlement”(Kimmel). The second half of Kimmel’s speech shifts from identifying issues in ender inequality to focusing on possible solutions to these issues. In this reward based section of his lecture where Kimmel strengthens his appeals logos with statistics. ” Gender equality is good for countries according to most studies, that those countries that are the most gender equal are also the countries that score highest on the happiness scale”(Kimmel).
Kimmel provides this statistic to further support his claim that gender equality is good for everyone. Kimmel refers to his source of information as “studies have shown” without giving any specificness or validity to the “studies” and this damages his redibility. Kimmel moves on in his speech to discuss the financial implications of gender equality in the workplace. Kimmel further strengthens his appeals to logos with more statistics. “It is also good for companies.
Research by Catalyst and others has shown conclusively that the more gender-equal companies are, the better it is for workers, the happier their labor force is. They have lower job turnover. They have lower levels of attrition. They have an easier time recruiting. They have higher rates of retention, higher job satisfaction, higher rates of productivity.. gender inequality) is extremely expensive”. Kimmel uses this statistic to reach a secondary audience of money oriented people such as businessmen or even politicians.
At this point of the spe aren’t sold on the idea of gender equality. This specifically relates to Kimmels secondary audience of . Emphasizing gender equalities good financial benefits makes gender equality sound more appealing audiences who may have been opposed to the Kimmel knows that there are still audiences that movement beforehand. Towards the end of Kimmel’s lecture he shifts the focus to ender equality in the family and family. “Data from psychologists and sociologists are quite persuasive here.
I think we have the persuasive numbers, the data, to prove to men that gender equality is not a zero-sum game, but a win-win.. when men share housework and childcare, their children are happier and healthier.. When men share housework and childcare, their wives are happier. Duh. Not only that, their wives are healthier”. Kimmel adds these final statistics at the end of the speech to make a strong appeal to logos by showing his audience how gender equality is good for everyone’s health and ow logical it would be to adopt gender equality..
This statistic applies gender equality to a health and social health context and depicts a gender equal family as a happier and healthier family. This specifically relates to Kimmel’s targeted audience of middle aged people because it appeals to the strong emotions that every parent has for their children. Most people in the targeted audience will want to adopt gender equal practices for the betterment of the family. Kimmel’s use of repetition can be seen in his speech’s main theme of gender equality being good for everyone and how it is teadily reiterated through the lecture.
Throughout the speech Kimmel repeats words such as “women” “boys” “men” “gender equality”. Kimmel uses repetition to hammer these words into the heads of his audience and create a theme of equality and that is everyone’s responsibility. Kimmel plays a middle man between the two genders. Kimmel does this from being limited to the restraints of examining to masculinity or femininity to closely and encourages his audience to see gender equality as an effective group effort. Throughout the speech Kimmel also uses humor to connect ith his audience, which is an appeal to ethos.
There are many moments during the his speech where Kimmel even allows a moment of silence between points for his audience to laugh. Examples of Kimmel’s humor can be seen in sarcastic statements such as “So let me be very clear: white men in Europe and the United States are the beneficiaries of the single greatest affirmative action program in the history of the world. It is called “the history of the world. “. In context to the speech itself Kimmel uses this sentence to make satire out of white man’s claim of reverse discrimination. Further use of humor can be seen in the line “Housework Makes Her Horny. Not When She Does It. )”. Kimmel’s fluent use of humor creates a friendly casual relationship between him and his audiences. Humor makes the audience comfortable with the Kimmel and allows his messages to be better received and digested by the audience.
Michael Kimmel’s TEDtalk “Why gender equality is good for everyone – men included” is a great piece for anyone interested in the world gender rights. Kimmel’s message is to get men involved in gender equality while his purpose for all genders to ight gender inequality through active collective engagement. els damages his credibility by not specifically naming his sources of information but not to the extent that his audience would completely discredit his argument. Kimmel addresses the key issues behind gender inequality and also provide feasible solutions to those issues. After listening to this TEDtalk I realize how blind I was to gender inequality and I was subconsciously an active piece in subconsciously promoting gender inequality. Kimmel is effective in his entire argument and successfully conveys his message and purpose to his targeted audiences.
