On September 21st Emma Watson, 24, best known for her role as Hermione Granger from the hit series Harry Potter, gave a speech to the United Nations. Watson delivered a speech on gender equality and launched her campaign called HeForShe. In her 12-minute speech, she spoke about the challenges women face in their every day life and how they are discriminated against and are looked as the weaker sex in comparison to men.
Watson introduced this as a formal invitation to men to support women’s rights and says, “Gender equality is your issue too.” In her speech, the actress directs her focus onto men when speaking about women’s rights. International Business Times says that the name of this campaign makes them uncomfortable and so does the name. Lily Ray, writer for IBT, says that according to Watson, men have taken an interest in feminism, because it in the tiniest way, affects them as well.
A number of feminists do not agree with Watson’s look onto this subject. In an ideal world, the population would work together to end the suffering and inequality of women, but the reality is that people will only help when it affects them in some way.
When the speech was delivered, the reviews began. Articles with mixed reviews soon came into play. TIME magazine writes “Sorry, Emma Watson, but HeForShe Is Rotten For Men”, whereas Vanity Fair says “Emma Watson Delivers a Game-Changing Speech on Feminism for the U.N.”. Two very different titles, but which is correct? Many critics have been accusing Emma Watson of what many people call “mainstream feminism” which only fights for the rights of Caucasian cis-gendered women and makes certain that they assure men that feminism is not about man hating; which it isn’t, but mainstream feminists are usually quick to say how much they love men. There has also been uproar from the community saying that Watson has failed to include any transsexual and queer women, along with Women of Colour.
Hash-tagging HeForShe on twitter is great and shows people that you are all pro women’s rights but how is it really helping? Sceptics have questioned how this will indeed help women when instead, most of the men participating in this campaign are being praised and getting a pat on the back for being so brave and openly supporting women’s rights, when it’s simply a humane thing to do.
Although Emma Watson’s actions were good at heart, and honourable, she projected women as endangered and as a species that needs protecting, which undoubtedly upset many women as they do not want to be seen as endangered but empowered, instead and be treated with respect.
Watson introduced this as a formal invitation to men to support women’s rights and says, “Gender equality is your issue too.” In her speech, the actress directs her focus onto men when speaking about women’s rights. International Business Times says that the name of this campaign makes them uncomfortable and so does the name. Lily Ray, writer for IBT, says that according to Watson, men have taken an interest in feminism, because it in the tiniest way, affects them as well.
A number of feminists do not agree with Watson’s look onto this subject. In an ideal world, the population would work together to end the suffering and inequality of women, but the reality is that people will only help when it affects them in some way.
When the speech was delivered, the reviews began. Articles with mixed reviews soon came into play. TIME magazine writes “Sorry, Emma Watson, but HeForShe Is Rotten For Men”, whereas Vanity Fair says “Emma Watson Delivers a Game-Changing Speech on Feminism for the U.N.”. Two very different titles, but which is correct? Many critics have been accusing Emma Watson of what many people call “mainstream feminism” which only fights for the rights of Caucasian cis-gendered women and makes certain that they assure men that feminism is not about man hating; which it isn’t, but mainstream feminists are usually quick to say how much they love men. There has also been uproar from the community saying that Watson has failed to include any transsexual and queer women, along with Women of Colour.
Hash-tagging HeForShe on twitter is great and shows people that you are all pro women’s rights but how is it really helping? Sceptics have questioned how this will indeed help women when instead, most of the men participating in this campaign are being praised and getting a pat on the back for being so brave and openly supporting women’s rights, when it’s simply a humane thing to do.
Although Emma Watson’s actions were good at heart, and honourable, she projected women as endangered and as a species that needs protecting, which undoubtedly upset many women as they do not want to be seen as endangered but empowered, instead and be treated with respect.