Is emma watson anti feminist for exposing her breasts - bbc news

2017/11/29 Is Emma Watson anti-feminist for exposing her breasts? - BBC News
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6 March 2017 UK
Is Emma Watson anti-feminist for exposing her breasts?
By Cherry Wilson
BBC News

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Emma Watson's decision to expose part of her breasts in a Vanity Fair photoshoot has
sparked a fierce debate on social media about what it means to be a feminist.
"She complains that women are sexualised and then sexualises herself in her own work.
Hypocrisy," said radio presenter Julia Hartley-Brewer on Twitter.
Watson said she was "confused" by accusations she is "anti-feminist" and there was a real
"misunderstanding" about what it actually means.
TIM WALKER / VANITY FAIR

So can you bare your breasts and still be a feminist?
"Emma Watson has done more for women and for young girls than most of us put together,"
says Sam Smethers, chief executive of the Fawcett Society, which campaigns for gender
equality and women's rights.
"So I don't really see that just because she's made that decision, any of us should be
criticising her.
"She's an empowered woman who is posing for a very tasteful image. She's not being
exploited, she doing it in a controlling position. It's a positive use of her body."
Sexist News, the team behind the campaign for the Sun to stop using topless models on Page
3, said it loved that the former Harry Potter star was "exploring and championing feminism
having grown up in the public eye".
It believes the row created by the photoshoot is "daft", adding: "It is not a debate that we have
about men's fashion shoots, regardless of the amounts of nipple-grazing crochet they wear.
"While no woman gets to dress herself outside of our society's patriarchal bubble, this
example just shows that someone like Emma Watson is going to face an even more
impossible standard than many other women."
GETTY IMAGES

Victoria Jenkinson, 20, a member of Girlguiding, believes the shoot has been used as a
opportunity to "stir up a frenzy" around Watson and "undermine" her work promoting women's
rights.
"The shoot doesn't suggest hypocrisy nor does it undermine her work as a feminist and we as
women should be united in our fight for equality more than ever before," she said.
TIM WALKER / VANITY FAIR

"I don't understand why people have an idea they can tell a woman what she can and can't do
and I agree with Emma that critics have missed the point.
"A woman should be able to choose what she wants to do. This is what feminism is all about
in 2017."
But Dr Finn Mackay, a feminism researcher at the University of West England, rejects the
view that feminism is about giving women "choice" and says it is a social justice movement.
"Emma's saying feminism is about choice and the choice to do whatever you want, but that's
a nonsense," she says.
"Some women choose terrible things, some women choose to work for parties that deny
women access to abortion, access to healthcare or mothers access to welfare."
However, she does not believe that Watson's pose for Vanity Fair means she is not a feminist.
"If she self identifies as a feminist and believes in promoting women's rights, her doing her job
doesn't necessarily have to undermine that.
"I think if she's trying to say being in a photoshoot and getting your breast out is a feminist act,
that's a different matter."
But Dr Mackay believes promoting feminism is more effective through the voice and not the
body.
"The most radical thing that women can do in this culture is keep their clothes on and open
their mouths and make political points," she says.
The controversy surrounding Watson's magazine shoot has brought into question what it
means to be a feminist.
But equality groups and feminists say the debate should be focused on female objectification
and inequality.
'Dig at feminism'
Ms Smethers says: "The real issue about all of this is the pressure on young women to look a
certain way, to be judged on their appearance so if we are going to focus on anything that's
what I would be more concerned to be prioritised."
Dr Mackay questions why the debate has been reduced to a celebrity exposing her breasts
rather than issues such as women's economic positions and cuts to women's services.
"A Hollywood celebrity flashing a bit of boob is really the least of my worries," she says.

"It's interesting that people only speak about it now and their real motivation seems to be to
want to have a dig at feminism rather than to talk about the overall problems Hollywood has
with objectifying women."
Sexist News adds: "We really need to examine why on earth this one fashion image has
caused such outrage. This is not to say that images of fashion or celebrity are unproblematic,
quite the contrary.
"As ever the focus is on what a woman should or shouldn't be doing and not on how our
culture presents, polices and consumes women's bodies and condemns their actions.
"We need to challenge these things, not the individual women stuck in the system."
Are you a feminist? Has someone challenged whether you are a feminist because of
something you've said, done or worn? Tell us about your experiences. Email
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Related Topics
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Emma Watson responds to Vanity Fair photo controversy
5 March 2017
Actor Emma Watson in call for equality
23 September 2016
Related Internet links
The Fawcett Society
Sexist News
Girlguiding
University of the West of England
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