Emma Watson
Emma Watson is an outspoken feminist. She has been the UN Women Goodwill Ambassador since 2014. She delivered a powerful speech about men and women’s equality to the United Nations. As a result of that speech, she was terrorized by a group that pretended to have nude photos of her in order to shut down the site 4chan. She has “brought men into feminism” by informing them of the ways patriarchy hurts them as well.
Obviously, Emma Watson is deeply problematic.
Her speech to the UN was lousy with privilege.
In addition to being sexist—we don’t need white knights—Emma Watson’s brand of feminism is extremely white, as the website Black Girl Dangerous helpfully reminds us.
Some of the mainstream (white) feminist interwebs are all abuzz because, according to said mainstream (white) feminist interwebs, it was all kinds of awesome and really, really next-level or something. Yes, some of it was very good. Ms. Watson talked about how she came into feminism herself, after experiences such as being sexualized by the media at age 14. For the first few minutes, the speech is awesome.
But then I bet it gets problematic doesn’t it?
The issue is that the message Ms. Watson delivered is problematic in many ways.
oh ffs i knew it
Here, she seems to suggest that the reason men aren’t involved in the fight for gender equality is that women simply haven’t invited them and, in fact, have been unwelcoming. Women haven’t given men a formal invitation, so they haven’t joined in. It’s not because, you know, men benefit HUGELY (socially, economically, politically, etc. infinity) from gender inequality and therefore have much less incentive to support its dismantling. It’s not because of the prevalence of misogyny the entire world over. It’s just that no one’s asked. OMG, why didn’t any of us think to ask?!
Wow, could she BE any more ignorant about how the structures of oppression are built?
Telling men that they should care about gender inequality because of how much it hurts them, centralizes men and their well-being in a movement built by women for our survival in a world that degrades and dehumanizes us daily. This is problematic for the same reason telling white people that they should end racism because racism “holds us all back as a society, so eradicating it will help you, too,” is problematic.
So many problematics, such little time.
Firstly, because even if that’s true, it does nothing to create solidarity. I have never met a white person who decided to take on anti-racism work because of the negative effects of racism on white people. Literally, never. And I don’t think I’ve ever met a man who genuinely supports feminist ideals because of the ways they benefit men first. If I did know people like this, I wouldn’t like them.
I’m sure you have tons of dude friends as it is, so this is a very strong point.
Needless to say, when Emma Watson whitesplained this week about how she’s totally down with solidarity for nonwhite feminists, it was laughable.
Although many mainstream media outlets praised Watson as a new feminist hero for her speech, which issued a "formal invitation" to men to join the struggle for women's rights, many intersectional feminist blogs questioned the approach, suggesting that the campaign problematically positions men as the saviors of women and that Watson had spoken from a privileged position as a rich white woman without thinking about the experience of women of color, dubbing her a "white feminist" -- that is, a feminist who only considers the experience of white people.
SMDH. How did right-thinking people respond to her attempt at “solidarity”?
Though, again, many websites have hailed her response as "smart," the intersectional feminists of Twitter do not seem to be satisfied with it.
Nor should they be. Nor should they EVER be.
Some people might suggest that responses like these are why so many celebrities are quick to disavow the “f” word. But who needs those faux-feminists anyway? If you don’t even intersection, I cannot even with you.
I give the transgression of being a feminist who frames her feminism in a way that displeases other more extreme feminists three problematics.
