Emma Watson talks to Paris Lees about feminism

[HandsOffMyRights]

'This Christmas, Watson is back on the big screen as Margaret “Meg” March in Greta Gerwig’s adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women.

The project couldn’t be a better fit for Emma, combining, as it does, many of her loves: literature, film and exploring the female experience. “With Meg’s character, her way of being a feminist is making the choice – because that’s really, for me anyway, what feminism is about,”

Interesting that "female choice" is what Emma deems feminism to be, as reported by Lees.

www.vogue.co.uk/news/article/emma-watson-on-fame-activism-little-women

Emma showing her brand of feminism here

metro.co.uk/2018/10/18/emma-watson-praised-for-being-lgbtq-ally-by-wearing-trans-rights-are-human-rights-t-shirt-8051491/

And on the whole self partnering stuff, that's so heteronormative.

Tracey Emin married a rock in her garden. That's what proper artists do.

And on the whole self partnering stuff, that's so heteronormative.

Strictly speaking, that's one thing it's definitely not.

The stuff she spouts is about what I expect from a university educated person of her age. There is no real ability to reflect on your own culture's ideology taught, it's quite depressing.

I never liked her, but I liked her a lot less years ago when she and Malala did something together and there was Emma implying that they were equal as activists. And all her fans cheering her on.

^ I remember now what itcwas6that put me off. She said "I'm so happy that Malala has identified herself as a feminist" or something along those lines. As if what Malala's actual ACTIONS were somehow not on par with her, Emma's, identity as a feminist. The usual privileged white celebrity crap.

I started watching that interview. The trouble with actors being interviewed is you never know when they're not acting.

However, I persisted.

I'm amazed that she's able to empathise with trans people (women) wanting to pee wherever they feel like, but not able to empathise with women, who for a variety of reasons, some very serious, don't want self identifying trans women in public toilets. She gets emotional about being excluded but is happy to exclude the most vulnerable women and girls out there from the most basic services.

Perhaps she needs to use some public toilets, alone, at night, to help her foster some empathy for actual females?
The interview starts off talking about privilege, and she's so encased by it she simply has no idea. She'll never, ever be on a ward in a multi-bed ward in hospital, she'll never, ever go for a Pap test and have a nurse who she's not met before (so doesn't know the sex) turn up.

She talks about how other people haven't had the same experiences as her but can imagine because they'll have felt the feelings from other experiences. That's true. The reverse isn't. She hasn't had and has the security of knowing she'll never have, the same experiences as other normal women and she apparently cannot empathise with them as a result. And that's the better option, because if she does and doesn't care that makes her a truly awful person, which I don't get the impression she is.

And don't think her choice of Paris Lees conducting the interview wasn't a statement, by the way. It absolutely is.

This.

Whoever I see this thread title, my brain keeps making up new ones, like "Donald Trump talks to Boris Johnson about imposter syndrome".

When ever!

What a horrible nasty thread with posters rushing to criticise Emma Watson. This is why so many women feel alienated by feminism.

And doesn't lees think being treated 'like a piece of meat' is hot?

Watson would appear to have done little research. Or perhaps she has but, like so many others, doesn't really treat trans women like women.

What a horrible nasty thread with posters rushing to criticise Emma Watson. This is why so many women feel alienated by feminism.

Oh the horror. Horrible nasty women not being kind. Feminism is not about women being kind and shutting up. That's what patriarchy is.

What a horrible nasty thread with posters rushing to criticise Emma Watson. This is why so many women feel alienated by feminism.

Feminism frightens a lot of women.

Why don’t you read what was written Tulips? The criticisms are substantial, not merely nastiness.

I think Emma will be putting a lot of people off feminism with her 'self-partnered' nonsense, and will put her in the daft Hollywood types bin with Gwyneth Paltrow and her Gloop.

@gc

To me, feminism is not about tearing down other women, simply because there may be a part of her ideology you disagree with, or deciding that a privileged woman should not have a voice, or patronising women, or enjoying the collective thrill of bringing down another woman.

Is there an actual reason that I'm meant to assume that a young person best known for being in Harry Potter films knows more about feminism than I do? Cause I'm afraid "well she's famous" isn't really a good enough reason.

Emma Watson RUINED the Beauty and the Beast remake for me. She was so badly miscast, coming across as wooden, cold and a bit nasty, which was a shame because the rest of the cast were so good. Odd, considering the way Lily James and Naomi Scott were so warm and human in their remakes and how Halle Bailey seems the perfect choice for The Little Mermaid. Gugu Mbatha-Raw should have got the part of Belle. She'd have been perfect.

Helen Mirren talks to Kate Moss about obesity.

Hmmmm... but maybe I should join in the spirit of this thread and make lots of comments about why Emma Watson is shallow, privileged, entitled and definitely not a real feminist. Yes, I feel better and way more feminist now just for thinking all those things. I think I’m definitely helping women now, and certainly doing my bit here on mumsnet to tear down the patriarchy by commenting on the inadequacies of Emma Watson’s feminism. Feels so good to have that off my chest.

In what way can we ‘bring down’ Emma Watson? She looks pretty up there to me being interviewed in Vogue.

If a celebrity is promoting a vacuous form of non-feminism as feminism to promote themselves and their brand, feminists have a right to say something about it.

I don’t want to gang up on and vilify someone, but it’s reasonable to criticise pseudo feminism that is actually counterproductive. It is galling when someone famous makes a big public deal about being a feminist and promotes guff that doesn’t stand up as any kind of feminism, radical or otherwise.

She always says “feminism is about choice’ and even worse she’s said it’s about “giving women choice” - you only have to think about it for 5 minutes to see the “choice’ definition makes no sense. Plenty of women make appalling misogynistic choices, from carrying out FGM to raising their sons to expect to be waited on, because of internalised misogyny and patriarchy.

Yes having a choice to for example not have children is part of feminist progress, but it’s not the whole point. Feminism is about countering and combating misogyny and patriarchy and gaining equality, and it is about understanding and pointing out structural inequality, not bleating about one actress’s “choice” to get her tits out. As if the fact she chose to do it makes the whole unequal situation ok. Does that mean if a woman chooses to send her daughter for fgm, that’s fine because she’s a woman and it’s her choice? no. She needs to think these things through.

What I don’t understand is if EW wanted to be a feminist trailblazer, why didn’t she do some reading and talk to some feminists and learn more about it? But she still could.

To me, feminism is not ...

You've decided what it isn't. What do you think it IS?