Ah, Emma Watson. Our beloved Hermione Granger, a debatably good Belle, and recently self-proclaimed “self-partnered” woman.
Recently, Emma reported that she sees herself not as single, but as being self-partnered. Basically, she has become comfortable enough in her singleness to embrace it rather than wallow in it. And I am here for that term!
“…it’s because there is suddenly this bloody influx of subliminal messaging around.” Watson said in an interview with British Vogue. “If you have not built a home, if you do not have a husband, if you do not have a baby, and you are turning 30, and you’re not in some incredibly secure, stable place in your career, or you’re still figuring things out… There’s just this incredible amount of anxiety.”
Watson said it took her a while to be comfortable with being single, and now calls in being self-partnered.
This statement of Watson’s received what I see as unwarranted backlash. The main point of why Emma Watson told an interviewer that she is “self-partnered” is because she is approaching her 30th birthday, and – as successful as she is – is being asked if she feels like a failure since she is not married or in a relationship.
People quickly took to Twitter to call the BAFTA award winning, UN Goodwill Ambassador, humanist out for being single because she is ugly and unsuccessful…?
Honestly, it is unbelievable that in 2019, almost 2020, our society still measures a woman’s success and worth based on whether or not she has a husband or kids. This is a standard that we should have outgrown a long time ago. And for Twitter trolls to call Emma Watson “ugly”, and for a well-known British news anchor, Piers Morgan, to say that “self-partnership” means that Watson “can’t get a bloke,” is wildly uncalled for.
Why is it that women receive more attention for stories relating to their relationship status or sexuality than for their accomplishments in any given industry? Personally, I didn’t even know Watson was a UN Goodwill Ambassador until looking into her numerous personal successes before writing this.
Had a man said he was “self-partnered”, the media would have portrayed this statement with admiration and acceptance. I’m almost positive the internet was less in a tizzy when Ansel Elgort stated that he wanted to be in an open relationship so that he could love more people, while only having sex with his long-term girlfriend. Somehow, a stunning and successful female actress’s statement on not feeling like a failure because of misogynistic societal standards telling her that she should feel like a failure, is more of a hot topic than a male actor’s personal choice to be in a quasi-open relationship.
I’m certain that if female celebrities like Emma Watson continue being open about how age and relationship status do not define you, will help us to bring up a new generation of young women who can disregard what society tries to tell them to feel about themselves.