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The Legacy of the Hollywood of the 50s and 60s: The Modern Actress“With great power comes great responsibility.” Uncle Ben, Spiderman (2002)From Hollywood’s birth through its development in the fifties and sixties, actresses garnered recognition through the creation and perpetuation of public personas based on traditional notions of femininity and a narrow definition of beauty. These personas, these starlets, were the dictators of American tastes and opinions; celebrity endorsements instantly popularized products, causes, movements, and more. The actresses of today, much like those of the 1950s and 60s, are still expected to create and perpetuate their own public persona. However, the current role of the celebrity as a public figures has changed thanks to modern inventions such as the Internet: celebrities now have more influence over and more access to both the American and the global public. The role of the female celebrity has expanded since that of the fifties and sixties; no longer is celebrity all about cultivating and maintaining a public image with an ultimate goal of fame, rather, celebrity is also about celebrating one's status as a role model, and giving back to the world, not just America, through championing various social and political causes. Emma Watson, through her persuasive and passionate diction in her speech endorsing HeForShe, embodies the role of the modern celebrity by using her star power to recruit the global public to support her cause. Specifically, the HeForShe campaign strives to increase awareness of the gender imbalance and to actively extend advocacy of feminism to males, a problem that has plagued Hollywood and the rest of the world for decades. In her speech, Watson summarizes the mission of HeForShe: “We want to try to mobilize as many men and boys as possible to be advocates for change. And, we don’t just want to talk about it. We want to try and make sure that it’s tangible.” The repeated ‘we’ stresses Watson’s dedication to the issue at hand, and creates an image of exclusivity and correctness: if Emma Watson likes something enough to publicly champion it, and one likes Emma Watson, then one is more likely to like that something as well. While the logic isn’t foolproof, it is motivating, and Watson capitalizes on the public’s obsession to be associated with her and the exclusivity of celebrity. Later in her speech, Watson notes that feminism is often perceived as an issue dominated by females, and thus invites men to participate in the conversation and fight to achieve gender equality, saying,“I want men to take up this mantle so that their daughters, sisters, and mothers can be free from prejudice, but also so that their sons have permission to be vulnerable and human too, reclaim those parts of themselves they abandoned, and in doing so, be a more true and complete version of themselves.” HeForShe is not just about eradicating preconceived notions about females--it is about doing so for the men as well. Eventually, Watson hopes that HeForShe will allow people the freedom to stop defining ourselves by who we are, not by what we are not (interestingly enough, paralleling the wishes of many Hollywood stars of the fifties, sixties, and modern times). Watson then goes on to state her reasons for representing the campaign: ”All I know is that I care about this problem, and I want to make it better. And, having seen what I’ve seen, and given the chance, I feel it is my responsibility to say something.” Watson recognizes that the fame Hollywood has given her lends her the power to influence the global public, but also responsibility. Instead of simply ignoring the vast influence she commands over legions of fans all around the world, Watson has elected to use her power, using the active verbs “want” and “feel” to convey the passion of her feelings. Watson concludes her speech by begetting her audience to step up and support the cause, imploring: “If not me, who? If not now, when?” By subtly reminding the audience of who she is through these heavy-impact rhetorical questions, Watson insinuates that this campaign is pertinent to ameliorating the current problems of the people of the world, and, through her stamp of approval, deserves others’ support as well. Ultimately, Watson, through her speech supporting the HeForShe campaign, embodies the powerful yet responsible modern Hollywood starlet who calls the public to support an important social cause.So is the legacy the glamorous-obsessed Hollywood of the 1950s and 60s created for the celebrities of today. Actresses can now draw significant attention to issues that otherwise might pass without notice from the global press and public--the video of Watson’s speech has 860,000+ views, and another posted days earlier has 6,957,000+. The Hollywood of the fifties and sixties imbued starlets with the power and influence to change the world. ?Now, current Hollywood celebrities, male and female alike, are finally starting to realize their capacity to change the attitudes of the people of the world, and are taking monumental strides to raise universal public awareness of issues dear to their hearts. ................
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