“If not me, who? If not now, when?”
These are the powerful words Emma Watson, United Nations ambassador, used for her speech on feminism this past September. During the speech, Watson promotes the newly launched UN campaign “HeForShe” to promote the truth behind feministic ideals.
“But my recent research has shown me that feminism has become an unpopular word.”
Feminism, as defined by Watson, is the “belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunites”– it is not man-hating. Though many feminists are wrongly portrayed as man-haters, Emma reminds her audience that feminism has nothing to do with hatred or femininity.
As the speech progresses, Watson addresses feminism from a different perspective. Instead of focusing on women’s issues in regards to gender stereotypes, she focuses on the effect these misconceptions have on men.
She explains, “I’ve seen young men suffering from mental illness, unable to ask for help for fear it would make them less of a man…In fact, in the UK. suicide is the biggest killer of men between 20-49 years of age, eclipsing road accidents, cancer and coronary heart disease. 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.We don’t often talk about men being imprisoned by gender stereotypes but I can see that that they are and that when they are free, things will change for women as a natural consequence.”
Watson believes that if men are first liberated from these stereotypes, women’s liberation will soon follow. Watson concludes with powerful statistics, and asks men to join the fight for feminism.
“Because the reality is that if we do nothing it will take 75 years, or for me to be nearly a hundred before women can expect to be paid the same as men for the same work. 15.5 million girls will be married in the next 16 years as children, and at current rates it won’t be until 2086 before all rural African girls can have a secondary education. If you believe in equality, you might be one of those inadverdent feminists…and for this I applaud you.”
Emma Watson is the voice of the first ever UN campaign of this kind. She is the current face of #girlpower. Will you join Emma in the feminist fight?
Listen to the speech here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkjW9PZBRfk