Emma Watson, who is best known for her portrayal of Hermione Granger, one of the most beloved female characters of this century, in the Harry Potter Series, and then graduating Brown University only to soon be appointed a UN Woman Goodwill Ambassador, establishing HeForShe, a global effort to encourage male identifying humans into accepting feminism as something that helps all humans of all genders all around the globe, is currently facing intense scrutiny on twitter because she dared to do something so dastardly, so insulting, it created traffic jams, stopped classroom discussion, and made Susie cover Johnny B. Good’s eyes to save him from the agony:
Emma Watson committed the cardinal sin of deciding to go braless and semi shirtless in the name of artistic expression:
Apparently, officially there is no way we can call her a feminist anymore. She traded her F Card for an FU Card because people everywhere are searching for the charred remains of whatever bra she torched and tossed in the rubbish.
This tradition of policing women’s bodies and identities is not a novel phenomenon – women of all shapes and sizes have been shamed for showing too much skin for centuries – but this fact does not make this any less annoying, insulting, or violating. No one should ever get used to being called a slut one day and a prude the next.
Moreover, there also seems to be some mystical myth that women who embrace their femininity and sexuality cannot be intelligent or genuine or influential. Boobs and a Brown University degree simply cannot exist within the same human being. If she happens to have boobs, she’s either a daft bimbo or a bitch that does not want to exist to please solely you, The Nicest Guy Out There.
There’s a certain brand of scum out there who becomes easily offended and flustered when some woman is existing in a body not meant for their own personal enjoyment. If the nudes are not meant solely for the pleasure of you and your poker buddies, she’s a whore. As Feminist theorist Simone de Beauvoir depicted in her piece The Second Sex, what makes a woman feminine and acceptable to society is frequently determined from the perspective of patriarchal minded individuals; basically, there are these vague, mystical essential oils a woman has to have or else she is not good enough. Feminists like Emma Watson tend to miss out on these because they refuse to accept the notion that men are supposedly the dominant subjects that play with objects, which happen to be women, and that underperforming objects can be easily discarded for insubordination.
I hope that feminists like Emma Watson keep fighting and denying this absurd notion, and declare with adamancy that they can wear whatever they desire and do whatever they desire.