It seems absurd that in 2017, when women are embracing their femininity, the country is deciding that intersectional feminism is crucial to the female future, and marches encouraging women despite differences have become our new “normal”, that a woman’s feminism should be questioned solely because of the fact that she has chosen to pose with her breasts exposed in a magazine.
This March, Emma Watson, best known for her role as Hermione in the Harry Potter franchise, was featured on the cover of Vanity Fair. However, controversy arose when some of the photographs of the issue featured Watson in a white ensemble, where a portion of her right breast was exposed and her midriff was open to the public. That same public rose their arms in contempt, asking how she can be a feminist if she shows herself off like that.
“Feminism is about giving women choice. Feminism is not a stick with which to beat other women with. It’s about freedom, it’s about liberation, it’s about equality. I really don’t know what my tits have to do with it,” Watson said in an interview with BBC, with a tone of irritation by the ludicrousness and outrageousness of the “controversy”.
Watson had every right to reply snapping to the fact that her feminism was up in the air over a photograph that was no less tasteless than a statue of Venus in the Louvre. Critics have decided that the slight presence of a nude woman was a ground for the beginning of an invalidation of her work as a UN Women’s Goodwill Ambassador, meanwhile no one has tried to take anything from the men of Moonlight posing in GQ in their underwear, attempting to undermine their achievements.
To criticize Watson for being photographed with her breasts exposed is to suggest that a feminist must be prim, proper, and covered. Feminism, however, is not about wearing a turtleneck over a crop top or choosing to be a doctor instead of a model. Feminism is not about how conservative women can be, but as Watson indicated in her interview, it is about choice and liberation. There are no guidelines to feminism other than to fight for equality in all aspects and respect for women regardless of how they choose to portray themselves. Even if it may for some reason be absolutely displeasing to see Watson’s underboob, it is her choice as a woman and as a feminist. There is a constant attempt by a variety of groups to challenge the meaning of feminism and being a woman, in order to prove that it is unnecessary or lesser than certain versions. Feminism is an ideology that is meant to encompass many different kinds of women, meaning that criticism should be completely absent if it is to critique a woman’s decision to openly celebrate her body or to wear a burqa. Something as trivial as to how a woman expresses her body is not only unproductive to the discussion of feminism, but wholly counter to it.
Emma Watson was brave, in the end, for posing partially nude for Vanity Fair. She dared to bare her body in the name of art, beauty, and self-ownership. Watson did not shy away after it was “called out”, instead she gracefully continued on her way, stating that feminism is not molded by any one definition or type.