Individual Presentation or Panel Title
Hillary Clinton Creates Multiple Personas to Address the World on LGBT Rights
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to provide a clear understanding of the rhetorical tools Hillary Clinton used in order to effectively address the world to advocate equal rights for people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered. This paper performs a critical rhetorical analysis of Clinton’s speech she delivered in 2011 to the United Nations in which she claims lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered rights are human rights. I argue that Clinton breaks her audience into three different categories of those in favor of equal rights for LGBT, those opposed, and those who hold no opinion on the issue. She then effectively addresses these audiences by crafting multiple personas through the rhetorical use of tone, structure, and supporting materials. I prove this by using evidence from her 2011 United Nations address, and modeling my argument around Edwin Black’s rhetorical concept of second persona. This concept suggests the speaker takes on the position of first persona and the audience of second persona. By identifying the beliefs and ethics of her audiences Clinton shapes a message for each to come to the same conclusion of human rights being LGBT rights.
Location
Janney Lounge
Start Date
3-5-2014 1:30 PM
End Date
3-5-2014 2:20 PM
Hillary Clinton Creates Multiple Personas to Address the World on LGBT Rights
Janney Lounge
The purpose of this paper is to provide a clear understanding of the rhetorical tools Hillary Clinton used in order to effectively address the world to advocate equal rights for people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered. This paper performs a critical rhetorical analysis of Clinton’s speech she delivered in 2011 to the United Nations in which she claims lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered rights are human rights. I argue that Clinton breaks her audience into three different categories of those in favor of equal rights for LGBT, those opposed, and those who hold no opinion on the issue. She then effectively addresses these audiences by crafting multiple personas through the rhetorical use of tone, structure, and supporting materials. I prove this by using evidence from her 2011 United Nations address, and modeling my argument around Edwin Black’s rhetorical concept of second persona. This concept suggests the speaker takes on the position of first persona and the audience of second persona. By identifying the beliefs and ethics of her audiences Clinton shapes a message for each to come to the same conclusion of human rights being LGBT rights.