For my final paper, I have chosen to write a rhetorical analysis of red carpet interviews. I will specifically be looking at the subtle, sexist tone of questions asked to female celebrities. I believe it is important to analyze these types of questions because I believe it reflects our cultural ideas about women and gender roles. Furthermore, I believe by allowing the media to continue to limit women to their beauty, we will be perpetuating this type of sexism. If you’ve ever watched a red-carpet pre-show for an event like the Oscars or the Grammy’s you may have noticed the focus that is put on the female celebrities’ outward appearance for the night. Of course, these events are intended to be “glamourous” however the media and journalist often overshadow the accomplishments of these celebrities by focusing on their beauty instead of their talent. Women are constantly bombarded with questions about their hair and makeup, the attire they’re wearing for the night, or their personal lives. These questions are often both inappropriate and irrelevant to their careers, as well as frustrating at times where they want to be asked about their craft. In contrast, men are asked more creative and existential questions related to their work and almost never asked the dreaded “Who are you wearing?” question that women can’t seem to allude. Though subtle, there is obvious sexism in the questions that women are asked compared to their male counterparts.
To better understand my stance, I’ll explain the rhetoric that I am analyzing. For this paper, I watched hours of interviews of different “red-carpet” events. What stood out to me the most was the overwhelming emphasis that was put on female celebrities’ dress for the night. One such example is an interview with actress Priyanka Chopra at the 2017 Oscar’s, where the emphasis was on her attire for the night as well as the changes she has made to her look since the previous year’s Oscar awards. Further, they paid special attention to the earrings she opted to wear that reportedly cost 5 million dollars and whether or not the price tag made her nervous. Her interview closed with the question “How long did it take you to get ready tonight?” to which she responded 2 ½ hours and that was the extent of her interview. In contrast, Pharrell Williams who produced the Oscar nominated film Hidden Figures, was stopped on the red carpet and asked how he felt about the success of his film. Actress Jennifer Lawrence was also interviewed this year at the Oscar’s. Her opening question was “Who are you wearing?” Which was then proceeded with “How tall are you?” While Justin Timberlake who was the executive music producer for the film Trolls, was asked what the inspiration was behind the music for the film. These are just a few examples of questions that are asked to women compared to questions that are asked to men. I could add more examples however the only change would be in the male’s questions as the women’s questions do not vary much if at all.
In recent years, female celebrities have grown annoyed with the sexist questions that they are asked on the red carpets. There issue is not specifically with the questions “Who are you wearing?” Rather the issue is that this is virtually the only question they are being asked. In an attempt to be asked more suitable questions the “#AskHerMore” campaign was launched by The Representation Project in 2015. The idea behind the “#AskHerMore” campaign was to call out sexist reporters and try to refocus on the achievements of women not only in Hollywood but across the board in politics, sports and so on. The campaign was backed by powerful women like Shonda Rhimes, Reese Witherspoon, Maria Shriver and Lisa Ling. Though the campaign did initially make an impact, it has since fallen short. Which brings me to one of the points I will be trying to make. Media affects our culture and when we are constantly exposed to sexism, even of the most subtle variety, it seeps into our societies. Celebrities are in a unique position where they have the ability to influence us. The artifacts I have chosen are important because they show the obvious differences in men and women’s interview questions. I also feel that it is important to include the “#AskHerMore” campaign as an artifact because it hasn’t been successful in implementing much change as far as the questions being asked to female celebrities. I believe this is because viewers are interested in these types of things which further backs up my argument that media influences our society.
For this paper, I have chosen to use the gender perspective as I have specifically been looking at female celebrities experiencing sexism. This perspective is appropriate for my artifacts because my artifacts are dealing with the type of questions that are asked to female celebrities that are almost never asked to men. Further, I feel like my artifacts fall in line with the current gender roles we have in place in our society where women are expected to look a certain way and are held to certain beauty standards.
In analyzing my rhetoric, I want to include Lloyd Blitzer’s Rhetorical Situation as a way of understanding my argument. Blitzer’s Rhetorical Situation is comprised of three components: exigence, audience, and constraints. I will begin by describing the exigence. The exigence of my analysis is that society is being exposed to sexism through red-carpet interviews. By allowing reporters and journalist to ask these beauty centric types of questions to celebrities we are devaluing the celebrities’ achievements and talent. At the same time, we are perpetuating the idea that women are nothing more than beauty pageant contestants. With adolescents and young adults tuned in to watch red-carpet events, we are doing them a grave in justice by limiting questions to appearances. One study found that the media has a negative impact on adolescent body image. In the study, adolescents were asked what the ideal body looked like and they all agreed that one specific movie star has the ideal body (Spurr, S., Berry, L., & Walker, K.). Further, the adolescent expressed pressure from the media to look and dress a certain way. It would be more beneficial to society if female celebrities were asked questions that focused on their careers and greater impacts they plan on making instead of being shrunken down to their appearance.
Next, I will be addressing the audience. The audience of these red-carpet shows are usually followers of these different celebrities. I’d also say that the audience are predominantly women as the shows tend to be more fashion inclined. The medium that is used to communicate my artifacts is television. These are televised red-carpet events so they initially reach the audience through a television program. For the constraints, I found that my biggest constraint is going to be that people tune into these shows to watch the fashion and soak up the glamour of it. In order to attract viewers, producers must show the viewers what they want and in all likelihood the viewers want to see the fashion. Another possible constraint I encountered is the fact that men’s fashion is not as exciting as women’s fashion and therefore is neglected. As far as the “#AskHerMore” campaign, the main constraint is that these celebrities that are complaining about being asked “who are you wearing?” are also walking advertisements for these designers. According to Business Insider, celebrities are often paid to wear certain dresses, shoes, or jewelry by designers (Weisman, A.) Furthermore, several of these celebrities also advertise their own beauty and clothing lines which is contradictory to them trying to avoid answering questions about appearance. Reese Witherspoon who was one of the most vocal “#AskHerMore” supporters, has her own clothing brand Draper James that she constantly advertises on her social media pages.
I believe it is important to address the sexism that women face in an attempt to demolish sexist attitudes towards women. Analyzing celebrity interviews is just one way we can go about seeing the different kinds of sexism that women are often confronted with. Currently, women in the entertainment industry are battling with harsh amounts of sexism. However, this is also true for women in society in general. Yet, celebrities have a unique position in that they are powerful individuals that yield the ability to influence our society and they can make a difference in helping to subside some of the sexism by changing the conversation. I feel as though it is imperative for female celebrities to be praised on their talents and achievements as much as their male counterparts are. This will teach our young people that beauty is superficial and they can become something more than just their looks. Shifting questions away from beauty and appearance to career and talent would be instrumental to society. When women are publicly shrunken down to their beauty and sexuality, their accomplishments are devalued and overshadowed. This in turn trickles down into our society