Group D - Benazir Bhutto Speech
A group of us from Sweden, Egypt, and Stanford watched a video excerpt of Benazir Bhutto's speech after the first assasination attempt on her life. Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnMzSmQKj2Q :)
We analyzed the rhetoric of the setting, her dress, and her words. A brief summary of thoughts/observations...
Visual Appearance (Picture of Speaker)
~ A woman, flanked by important looking men - bodyguards, gov. officials - who are protecting her indicate her high status
~ Flashes from news cameras, media coverage emphasizes the event's importance.
Intended audience
~ Audience must international, since she speaks in English.
~ Wears headscarf so as not to be "excessively" controversial; this would appeal to Muslim base
~ Wears white for an angelic innocent look, "halo" effect on television cameras
~ Type of speech - genus judiciale, genus deliberativum(political speech)
~ Exudes confidence in front of Pakistani audience, seemed powerful through her gestures and punctuation (She's very direct and straight to the point, no flowery language.)
~ Her comment about the Muslims not attacking women implies that the government isn't Muslim. (Had the audience been different, or Pakistani, speech might've been more of an appeal.)
Exigency
~ A demand from rest of the world to know what happened. Important to international politics.
~ Oppurtunity to share her own thoughts, opinions.
Ethos of Speaker
~ Ethos from her speech derived perhaps from her idealism and ambitious goals (i.e. "No Muslim would attack a woman.") shows her trust in the Muslim people (trying to help international perception of Muslim)
~ Cultural factors
~ From the invocation of a religion - Islam, Allah
~ Choice of the conservative headscarf as token symbol of her religion, wants to come across as serious
What might she change for a different audience?
~ If it were national Pakistani audience, she might've address the families of the victims first (instead of the events surrounding the assasination incident), discussed the dynamics of Pakistani politics
Comments
I really enjoyed hearing the point of view from the Egyptian participants. They gave us an up front depiction of HOW CONTROVERSIAL it was for Bhutto, a woman, to be speaking, and how her conscious decisions of dress played a role in trying to minimize this controversy.
Posted by: Gemma Schrum | March 10, 2008 10:04 AM
I like how you analyzed the speech and kept it broken down for the blog
Posted by: Anonymous | March 10, 2008 10:06 AM
... because it serves as such a stark contrast to the American woman that I know and love (although American women aren't necessarily treated completely equal as men yet, it's still an accepted American goal rather than a violation of cultural ideals).
Posted by: Gemma Schrum | March 10, 2008 10:07 AM
Yes, thanks to the Egypt students who were in our group, whose insight into Muslim culture were particularly helpful towards our better understanding Bhutto's speech and presentation. Oftentimes, (at least for me!) regardless of how hard we try to not have assumptions or pre-concieved opinions, they are not altogether avoidable. Being able to speak with Egypt students and learn directly from their perspective (i.e. about the headscarf, Islam) about the culture behind Bhutto - which they are obviously more knowledgeable about than I am - was refreshing and interesting.
Also, only when our group took the time to break down and examine all aspects of this speech did I realize just the importance and influence of every gesture, every dress on the audience. :)
Posted by: Ben-Zhen Sung | March 10, 2008 10:14 AM
The analysis of Bhutto's appearance was also one of the most interesting points made in this presentation for me because realizing the vast significance of a female speaker from Bhutto's society would have taken me a long time on my own. So I'm grateful for the Egyptian students' perspective and their perceptiveness in pointing out Bhutto's dress and color choice in this speech's analysis.
Posted by: Michelle | March 10, 2008 10:14 AM
I like the visual rhetorical analysis of Bhutto's appearance. It's interesting to see exactly how she exudes her persona. I know I usually find myself thinking it's just "common sense" instead of really attributing her persona to specific visual elements.
Posted by: Deonne | March 10, 2008 10:18 AM
I really liked this analysis of Bhutto. I was actually first introduced to her watching "Colbert"--the #1 source for legitimate news (obviously).
Is there an image that could be posted here that would help the rhetorical analysis though?
Posted by: Collegiately Inappropiate | March 10, 2008 10:18 AM
I was particularly interested in you comment about her ability to deliver ethos via her "idealism" when she says "No Muslim would attack a woman." I think part of this has to do with her ability to separate herself from the evil-doers, to say "us vs. them" and to emphasize a stark contrast between good and bad Muslims. Not only is she denouncing evil, she is standing up for good when she says this. I agree with you that this statement was key to her ability to build ethos.
Posted by: Saima Hasan | March 10, 2008 06:04 PM
Another insightful aspect to our analysis (that was introduced by our international group mates- thanks!) was the importance of considering the audience. Perhaps she WOULD have been more sympathetic to the families, and gone into the specifics of the political conflict more (rather than just describing what had happened and denouncing the government for its lack of protection) if the speech were for the Pakistani people (national audience) than the international media.
And I agree with Deonne! we need to get a photo of her making the speech on here!
Posted by: kyonne | March 11, 2008 03:55 AM