Emma Watson
A strong spokeswoman for women’s right and equality, Emma Watson is a role model for women all over the world who believe that a woman should be treated the same as a man. She has filled women with hope, and has been a light for women to become stronger. Starting the HeforShe campaign in 2014 at the UN, Watson has since become a strong leader for equality.
Emma Charlotte Duerre Watson was born on April 15th in 1990. Her parents gave birth to her little brother three years later, and at the age of five, her parents were divorced. Watson and her brother moved to Oxfordshire in England with their mother after. She then attended the Stagecoach Theatre Arts school at Oxford. From a young age, Watson was very interested in acting. Her theatre teacher spoke to agents about Watson, ultimately landing her the role of Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter series. Watson was then involved with Harry Potter for the next ten years of her life. Even though this made for a busy life, Watson always kept up with her tutoring for five hours a day. She would take exams fit for the level of school she was in and she scored very high on all her subjects. Towards the end of the Harry Potter franchise, she wanted to shed her child star image. She stated: “I have lived in a complete bubble. They found me and picked me for the part. And now I’m desperately trying to find my way through it”. In 2010, to help shed her Harry Potter days, Watson chopped off all her hair, showing off a new pixie cut. Watson also got involved with fashion stating: “I love fashion. I think it’s so important, because it’s how you show yourself to the world”. She then got involved with a fashion company called People Tree. People Tree is a fashion label that promotes fair trading. Watson was very committed to her education and enrolled as a freshman at Brown University. She chose an American school for her education so that she could more easily be a normal student. Watson has always been admired for her love of education and attending an Ivy League school, and graduating from Brown University.
Emma Watson had to defer her school, to work on the last Harry Potter film. While she was filming, she started to attend Oxford University. She attended Oxford in the fall, and had plans to return to Brown to get her Bachelors degree. Watson has shared that she loved her time at Brown. She felt that she stood out at first, but once she settled into things, she felt just like a normal student. She said she was never asked for an autograph on campus and she even hosted parties where no one would even post a picture with her. In 2014, Watson graduated within five years of attending Brown, with her Bachelors degree in English. I think one reason why so many women love and respect Emma Watson is because of her love for education. She believes that everyone should attend school and further their education. Watson loves school and I think that she would want everyone to have a love for it, like she does. The same year that she graduated school, she was made a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador. That is really when she started speaking out about her beliefs in equality.
It was in 2014 that Emma Watson began her HeforShe campaign with the UN. She gave an amazing speech at the UN’s HeforShe launch that landed her a standing ovation. Feminism isn’t about one gender being better than the other, it’s about men and women being treated the same. My favorite thing about her speech, is that she compares the feminism to man hating. Feminism is about equality for both genders. I am a strong believer in that no one should shame men. Female rights are human rights and men are also humans. Men should not be made less, just because a woman wants to be treated the same. Watson’s speech makes it perfectly clear what equality is all about. You can click here: herewww.youtube.com/watch?v=gkjW9PZBRfk to see the full speech. Watson is very passionate about feminism. She believes that women should be able to choose what happens to their bodies, she believes that men and women are equal, she believes that men can help be advocates for change, she believes that women should be paid the same as men, and the list goes on and on. I admit that I was one of those women who hated the word “feminism”, but I have learned that feminism is just equality for the sexes. I have learned this through Emma Watson. She has taught so many that feminism isn’t that women are better than men, or that men are the weaker sex, but that women and men can be treated as equals. Women can be paid the same as men, and women can have a typical man’s job, and men can be sensitive, and should not be shamed for expressing their feelings.
A lot of women in the media have made it seem that women are the greater sex, and that they need to prove that they are better than men, but Emma Watson and the UN with their HeforShe campaign have proved that men are still powerful, but women are just as powerful. On Women’s Day, March 8th 2014, Emma Watson, Forest Whitaker, and UN’s women’s executive director Phumzile Mlambo – Ngcuka, spoke about how art can inspire social progression. I believe that what we see in the media can directly affect our lives. We live in a monkey see, monkey do chain reaction in the world. We can take what we see Emma Watson doing, and try to change how we view feminists, and change how we view equality.
To this day, Watson continues to use her voice to speak up about the social issues of equality. She is very outspoken about her beliefs and I believe that her beliefs can be a good change. I’ve never associated feminism with equality, but my views have changed just by researching Emma Watson, and hearing about the change she tries to bring to the world. We can all be a little more like Emma Watson and start standing up for equality.
A Late Night Talk
Kaylie and I sat at Chick-Fil-A scarfing down our fries drenched in sauce. The restaurant was quiet, not a lot of people were still there at nine o’ clock at night. Kaylie had been talking about the recent sexual assault allegations in Hollywood.
“I think what happens in Hollywood really affects everyone else, we just don’t seem to realize it” she said after sipping at her drink, then suddenly picking up another waffle fry.
“How’s that?” I replied, but not really looking up to look at her.
“I think it’s because when you start speaking up about equality, especially when you have had as much power as a celebrity, people will start to listen” she said with her mouth still full of waffle fries.
I had never considered myself a feminist, but Kaylie was. I had never even thought about what kind of affect feminism had on the world. When Donald Trump was elected president, woman everyone marched in protest and I would roll my eyes. It was after Kaylie had brought it up at dinner, that I started to see things a little differently. Emma Watson once said: “If you believe in equality, then you are a feminist.”
I’ve always been offended by how men are treated in the workplace versus women. Is a woman less valuable than a man? Are they not as smart? But, women are just as smart and just as valuable. In my workplace, mostly women are hired, but that doesn’t mean that the positions shouldn’t be open to a man.
“Men can get away with anything in Hollywood, because they are famous and they make money by being famous” She added on. Kaylie had always been going on rants over the current events in Hollywood. She believed so much in equality, when it was something I had never thought twice about. She had such passion when she talked about it, the kind of passion the used to bother me a little, because in my marriage, I choose to be dependent on my husband. While I am dependent, I’ve also learned that it is okay to be independent. Women can demand what they want. We can choose to have our voices heard and not fall into the sexism affect that the media has on us. The time has come that women have started to let their voices be heard. We can demand equal pay, and we can demand the same roles as men, and we no longer must be submissive. I don’t think that women are better than men, but I do think that the time has come that we no longer let Hollywood determine how we view women.
Kaylie and I finished our night laughing and giggling over how awkward we are. We didn’t talk about the issue again, but it is something that I often think about. She taught me so much about equality in a short amount of time. We sat at our booth sipping at our drinks, waiting for the free refills the employees offered, and all I could think about was the conversation we had. I decided that night, that I do believe in equality, and I do believe that a woman is just as important as a man, and all of that happened on a quiet night at Chick-Fil-A, with full tummies, and lots of laughter.
The Effect Hollywood Has On Us
2017 had been a time for a lot of changes in Hollywood. We have heard the terms “me too” or “gender pay gap” thrown around social media, and while women everywhere want their stories to be heard, some aren’t willing to listen. Sexism in Hollywood is more and more in the headlines as we hear stories about actresses experiencing unfair treatment. Either they don’t get paid enough, or they are getting sexually harassed on the set of movies by the actors, directors and producers. Women all over the world have found it hard to fight back, but in 2017, actresses have been able to take a stand for equality, helping women everywhere to fight back in their own lives. The time is now to take a stand. Times up.
In 2017, famous producer Harvey Weinstein was under allegations for sexual assault on the set of his movies. This was just the beginning in a spark of stories from actresses who have fallen victim to sexual abuse in the workplace, and not being able to do a thing about it, considering they were “just” actresses, and their bosses were the ones abusing them. Suddenly, #metoo was seen all around social media. #Metoo is a women’s movement to stand up for themselves and to go public with their stories of abuse. This then led to women around the world posting their #metoo stories on social media. #metoo also made it to Times Magazine, where women could really go in depth about these issues. So many women had stepped forward and demanded that the world know what was happening behind the scenes. Woman that I know in my personal life were starting to share their stories and it seemed like #metoo was now everywhere. This is just one of the ways that women are taken advantage of simply for being a woman. Celebrities started a chain reaction where they were no longer afraid to share their stories. They were no longer afraid to stand up for what was right. Women have never had a voice quite as strong as they have today. Equality is something that women have been fighting for, for years. It started with women allowed in school, for the right to vote, and now for women to have fair treatment in the work place. Hollywood has been working toward equality for some time now, but only recently has it been in action. We are seeing changes, and we are seeing results. Hollywood affects our personal lives, more than we can see. I think women all over the world are being abused in the work place and are too afraid to stand up for what is right, because men and women have different treatment. One example of this is Brock Turner.
In January 2015, Brock Turner was found lying over an unconscious female at the Stanford campus. Two witnesses addressed what was happening, and when Brock tried to run, they tripped and restrained him until authorities arrived. Some argued that Brock Turner should have had a longer jail sentence for raping an unconscious woman, but was only sentenced for six months, and after serving for only three months, Turner was released. Many felt that his punishment was not long enough, and that he simply was getting a slap on the wrist for his crimes. It is stories like these, that make women feel as though they cannot share their stories. They feel that there is no justice for the way they are treated. Until recently women everywhere have started to become more comfortable talking about these issues.
Other examples of sexism in Hollywood is the gender pay gap. It has been proven that men make more money than women. Some actors make almost as much as double their female costars. The reason for this treatment is the fact that most movies star a man and not a woman. Most woman are cast as supporting roles, instead of leading roles, when I think, personally, we need more movies with strong female characters, without sexualizing them in any way. The highest paid actor in the world is Mark Wahlberg at 68 million, and Emma Stone is the highest paid actress with only 26 million. Actresses have been openly fighting for fair pay for a couple years now. There have been more and more actresses who speak up about equal pay and are now fighting for it. Robin Wright demanded she be paid the same as Kevin Spacey in House of Cards, or she would go public if Netflix didn’t treat her as an equal. Celebrities have said that they are afraid of being known as the actress who was difficult to work with, because they want to be treated fairly, but actors always fight for what they want, and are never labeled. With these things coming to light in the past couple of years, men have started to support the women who are abused in this way. Men have supported the women who have come out about their sexual abuse stories, they have supported them in gaining equal pay, and they support them as human beings who deserve fair human rights. If men are starting to see the problem, then maybe it means that there is an actual problem that needs to be addressed.
Hollywood affects our lives. It affects us more than we know, but as soon as #metoo started circulating, it gave just us normal women the confidence to fight back as well. Equality has come a long way, but it needs to continue. Women are not treated fairly. There are more opportunities for men, and some believe that women still cannot accomplish all the things that a man can. Emma Watson has been a spokeswoman for equal rights for a long time. She once stated: “But there’s a willingness now to be like, ‘Fine. Call me a ‘diva’, call me a ‘feminazi’, call me ‘difficult’, call me a “First World feminist’, call me whatever you want, it’s not going to stop me from trying to do the right thing and make sure that the right thing happens.’ Because it doesn’t just affect me, it affects all the other women who are in this with me, and it affects all the other men who are in this with me, too.” Equality doesn’t just affect those in Hollywood, or apply to those celebrities who want equal pay. It affects everyone else, like Emma Watson stated. She fights for it, because it is the right thing to do for everyone else who is struggling. Equality isn’t just for woman either. Many think that feminism and equality are two different thing, but it is a fact that the two are the same. Men should fight for equal rights just as women should. In most cases, men do get higher treatment than women do, but equality affects everyone. Feminism is not “man shaming”, it’s wanting to be treated the same as male counterparts in all things. If a woman were found guilty of raping a man, she should be punished, just as a man should be fairly punished for doing the wrong thing. We need to avoid cases like Brock Turner by serving only half your sentence just because it could ruin your swimming career. There should be fair treatment for those who do the right thing, and those that do the wrong thing.
The way we can start to make a change, is by starting with the examples of Hollywood. Sexism in Hollywood is a real issue, and it is an issue that has not been addressed enough. Until recently, women stayed quiet about their unfair treatment, but it is time to take a stand. Women deserve to be paid the same both in Hollywood, and in the real world, without being labeled as difficult. Women shouldn’t have to be afraid to go to work every day because they are subject to abuse. Men shouldn’t have to be afraid to go to work every day for this same reason. Equality is a large issue that has never been addressed quite like it is today, and we need to help make it better. Women and men are equals, and they deserve to be treated as such.