Lets hope Emma Watson still has that magic touch as she gears up to take on the feminist fight with her new title as the United Nations Women Goodwill ambassador. On September 20th, the Harry Potter star spoke to the UN, launching the HeForShe campaign, which is “a solidarity movement for gender equality.” What made this speech ever so compelling, and marked a significant game changer for the feminist movement, was the intended audience Watson aimed to reach. This speech was not meant to empower just women with its girl power mantras, but to also strike a cord in men. The words that Watson spoke encompassed the totality of the feminist issue. Feminism is not a battle of the sexes; it is not a hormone-induced, man-hating epidemic (no, it is not us PMSing either); and it is not a movement only suited for the feisty female. The debate that a pro-feminist man is an oxymoron or myth is no longer viable after the collection of truth bombs were released in Emma Watson’s inspiring speech on feminism. She spoke up for women and spoke out to men, clearing all the stereotypes, prejudices, assumptions, and misunderstandings that have clung to every human being since the moment they were born into this world as a girl or a boy. Feminism is not man vs. woman, but rather, man with woman. Feminist is a title suited for anybody, whatever the gender may be. In this most compelling definition, Courtney Martin exonerates, “Feminism in its most glorious, transformative, inclusive sense, is not about man-hating…but about educated choices for men as well as women, genuine equality, and a vision of gender roles that allow individuals to become their most authentic self.” The impact of Emma Watson’s speech did not lie solely on the obvious facts that women are suffering from this gender inequality, but upon the facts that largely go unnoticed- men are suffering too. Watson’s speech was not just magical; it was an awakening that manifested the idea that feminism can change all our lives.
Emma Watson eloquently voiced the words the world needed to hear about the feminists fight for gender equality. Her speech to the United Nations was stock full of all the revelations, clarifications, and motivations necessary to make a feminist out of us all. Watch and listen to Watson’s most wizardly words to ignite your feminist fancy, or at least look over this list of her speeches most magical moments.
1. “Fighting for women’s rights has too often become synonymous with man-hating. If there is one thing I know for certain, it is that this has to stop. For the record, feminism, by definition, is the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities.”
2. “Feminism has become an unpopular word. Women are choosing not to identify as feminists. Apparently, I am among the ranks of women whose expressions are seen as too strong, ‘too aggressive,’ isolating and anti-men, unattractive, even. Why has the word become such an uncomfortable one?”
3. “No country in the world can yet say that they have achieved gender equality.”
4. “Men, I would like to take this opportunity to extend your formal invitation. Gender equality is your issue too…. I’ve seen men made fragile and insecure by a distorted sense of what constitutes male success. Men don’t have the benefits of equality, either.”
5. “If men don’t have to be aggressive, women won’t be compelled to be submissive. If men don’t need to control, women won’t have to be controlled. Both men and women should feel free to be sensitive. Both men and women should feel free to be strong… We should stop defining each other by what we are not and start defining ourselves by who we are. We can all be freer.”
6. “I want men to take up this mantle so their daughters, sisters and mothers can be free from prejudice but also so their sons have permission to be vulnerable and human, too and in doing so, be a more true and complete version of themselves.”
7. “I am inviting you to step forward to be seen and to ask yourself, ‘If not me, who? If not now, when?’”
It with my feminist rant coming to a close, I shift again, not to the wise words of Emma Watson, but to the wise words of yet another feminist, Bell Hook, who called on us all to imagine a better world:
“Imagine living in a world where there is no domination, where females and males are not alike or even always equal, but where a vision of mutuality is the ethos shaping our interaction. Imagine living in a world where we can all be who we are, a world of peace and possibility. Feminist revolution alone will not create such a world; we need to end racism, class elitism, imperialism. But it will make it possible for us to be fully self-actualized females and males able to create beloved community, to live together, realizing our dreams of freedom and justice, living the truth that we are all ‘created equal.’ Come closer. See how feminism can touch and change your life and all our lives. Come closer and know firsthand what feminist movement is all about. Come closer and you will see: feminism is for everybody.”
photo credit: http://cdn.bambini.eu/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/emma-watson-unwomen-ONU…