As we all know, Emma Watson is an amazing actress who is best known for her role as Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter series. However, Emma also has become a leading women’s rights activist in the media and is now a United Nations Global Goodwill Ambassador. Pretty impressive at only twenty-six years old.
Watson recently showed off her political savvy with a tweet she posted this week regarding her perspective on the American 2016 Presidential Election. At this point, everybody seems to have tossed around their opinion regarding the election, including myself, yet Emma’s eloquent phrasing and specific message geared towards the women of America really stands out from the crowd.
Since Watson is a British citizen, she cannot vote in the upcoming American election. She writes how it has been “excruciating to sit on the sidelines” in recent months, because this country means a great deal to her. Emma fondly says, “America is my second home,” and stresses the importance of the election to not only American citizens but to the entire global community.
And I believe that she’s entirely correct. The winner of this presidential election, whether it’s Clinton or Trump, will be the leader of the world’s only undisputed superpower. They will inherently be the most powerful individual on the planet, which is why when Emma writes that this election “will have ripple effects around the world” and impact “millions and millions of people,” she isn’t exaggerating.
The next president of the United States of America will be able to make important decisions that will reflect the current state of not only American society, but the international community. Since Watson’s main message has always been gender equality, she shifts her focus towards women and the next President’s role interacting with them. Watson stresses that the next president will have power and influence over decisions “about women, about their bodies, about how they are treated at work, on university campuses and at school, about how men treat women and about their rights as citizens.”
Yikes.
That laundry list of very important things is scary, and the prospect of putting all of that power into one individual’s hands is even scarier. But Emma is only speaking the truth here. This election really is paramount to women.
Now, I know Emma never explicitly names either candidate running for president, but her endorsement is pretty clear. One candidate in particular has had a terrible track record with women, both during the campaign trail and far, far before it. This candidate has called women vulgar and disgusting names, has constantly objectified them based on their looks, and has said things that perpetuate sexual assault culture while brushing it off as merely “locker room talk.”
We all know who this candidate is, and no surprise will come when I say that it’s Donald Trump.
But all hope for women is not lost. In fact, Watson ends her message with a profoundly empowering fact. In the 2012 US election, only 60 million men casted a vote as compared to 70 million women! If every women voting stood up to Trump and casted a vote for Hillary, we could really dictate the outcome of this election. Women do have the power to swing the election; we only need to reach out and utilize it.
Emma writes, “Goodness, I wish I could cast a vote,” and frankly so do I. We need more intelligent and thoughtful individuals in this country such as Watson who will take the time to consider the importance of a vote. You are not voting for a person when you check off Clinton or Trump come November 8th, you are voting for this country’s identity.
So what will it be? Are we a country that is going to allow a man with no respect for women to sit in the Oval Office? If Trump wins, then suddenly every atrocious thing he has said or done becomes rewarded behavior. It becomes okay to say and do.
It isn’t okay.
Please, take the time to go out and vote. The 2016 Presidential Election will be held on Tuesday, November 8th, 2016.