Colin Stokes on How Movies Teach Manhood

    

 One of my favorite Ted talks is by a man named Colin Stokes. This particular Ted talk makes me hold Mr. Stokes in very high esteem, not because he says anything new, but because--finally-- a man is standing up for women's rights. There are many feminists in the world, but how many of them are men? Stokes mentions a study that states 1 in 5 women say that they have been sexually assaulted sometime in their life. Too often today we read the words "women" and "assaulted" and we think, this is a women's problem. When Stokes hears the statistic "1 in 5 women are sexually assaulted," he first thinks "that is a lot of sexual assailants." The solution to this issue is not to further shelter women; it is to create a world where they don't need to be sheltered. 

          Stokes is a brilliant spokesperson for this issue. Not only because he is a man, but also because he is a parent. His technique in appealing to the audience through talking about his children is very effective. His talk is superficially about children’s movies but his message is much deeper. He addresses what society is teaching our sons and daughters and how it impacts our world. The audience is presumably adult, and therefore likely to have children, so they would be extra sensitive to discussing how their children should be raised.

     I also enjoy this speech because none of the concepts are difficult to grasp. Stokes has a very simple and calm manner of speaking. He uses movies, particularly the Wizard of Oz, to represent the kind of world he wants to create for his children. He also uses Star Wars as an example of a world he would not want his daughter to live in. A world that is predominantly male and female characters are not impressive or significant. These movies are perfect to demonstrate this because they are movies the majority of the population has seen. And both are widely popular. Most people who watch Star Wars don’t think of the message it delivers to women and why that is relevant and worth discussing.
     This speech addresses the illogical reasoning of teaching women to avoid abuse instead of teaching men not to abuse. I will further be addressing this topic in my own speech on human trafficking. The two topics are very closely related, when I am writing my speech I will consider the techniques chosen by Mr. Stokes and how they would or wouldn’t be effective in my own delivery. 

Here is a link to Colin Stokes' Ted talk;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueOqYebVhtc