This past week as I was scrolling through my Facebook, I noticed an interesting article that numerous people had shared. It was titled, “Emma Watson Delivers Game-Changing Speech on Feminism for the U.N.”
Immediately this caught my attention, but I wasn’t sure if others would be as easily intrigued by the headline rather than the picture they saw.
Emma Watson is most famously known as the actress who portrayed the role of Hermione Granger in the magical Harry Potter Series. She has been a part of J.K. Rowling’s movies since she was a young girl. With her distinctive face, it is still hard today not to link her with the acclaimed character. But did this role forever label her as the intelligent, magical child or did it just create a gateway for her other success in the limelight?
I’ve recently have been reading a book titled, Outliers: The Story of Success, by Malcolm Gladwell that explains the importance of the certain intelligence of humans. It explains that although you have to posses a certain instinctual ability to learn, other exogenous factors contribute greatly to the level of success you ultimately can have. That your true ability might not be based upon your genes, but simply by chance.
In this case, Watson’s ability to influence thousands of followers into promoting equality for her new organization He for She, seems a small feat more dealing with her physically speaking than the actual rhetorical eloquence of her speech. Her presence alone makes anything she says popular and ethical with the younger generation and skeptical with the older. The recognition of familiar faces is important in the cognitive development of humans, but can lead to some issues.
Although, I hypothesize that Watson’s speech made the issue of gender equality more relatable to women and more so men. She, a woman herself, is speaking to bring together an effort for all of humanity and not just one race. No matter if she is a celebrity or not, I would like to think that her image doesn’t misconstrue my perception. But psychology might tell me something different.
According to psychology.about.com, “Perception doesn’t just involve becoming consciously aware of the stimuli. It is also necessary for our brain to categorize and interpret what it is we are sensing. Our ability to interpret and give meaning to the object is the next step, known as recognition.”
Just from listening to Watson’s speech or seeing her name can serve as a type of recognition that makes sense in our minds; this idea is no false positive. I believe after research that just the association of Emma Watson’s face struck a chord with a lot of the male viewers, as well as, readers of Harry Potter making it almost impossible for them not to sympathize with the topic being addressed.
References:
Cherry, Kendra. “How Environmental Stimuli Affect Our Thinking.” About. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Sept. 2014. <http://psychology.about.com/od/sensationandperception/ss/perceptproc_9.htm>.
Gladwell, Malcolm. Outliers: The Story of Success. New York: Little, Brown, 2008. Print.
“Home – HeForShe.” HeForShe. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Sept. 2014. <http://www.heforshe.org/>.
Robinson, Joanna. “Emma Watson Delivers Game-Changing Speech on Feminism for the U.N.” Vanity Fair. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Sept. 2014. <http://www.vanityfair.com/vf-hollywood/2014/09/emma-watson-un-speech-feminism>.
This is an unique topic to pick for a science blog post. I watched parts of the speech and was impressed by Emma Watson’s approach to the topic. Some advice is that maybe next time you could focus more on the scientific aspect of the issue, for example you mention briefly cognitive theory and the effect of environment and genes on success and ability to learn. Perhaps you could elaborate more with link in studies that have investigate this and that have maybe identified certain genes. Good work!