Emma Watson has been getting a lot of backlash when she posed for a photo partially exposing her breasts.
The said photo taken by acclaimed fashion photographer Tim Walker for Vanity Fair shows the 26-year-old actor and UN Women Goodwill Ambassador wearing a white Burberry bolero jacket with nothing underneath.
Immediately, she was called a hypocrite for “sexualizing” herself while advocating for women’s equal rights.
A British radio presenter and commentator, and a woman herself, Julia Hartley-Brewer took to Twitter to accuse Watson of being hypocritical. “Feminism, feminism… gender wage gap… why oh why am I not taken seriously… feminism… oh, and here are my tits!” she said on her Twitter account.
But Watson, the pioneer of the HeForShe campaign, fired back to critics by reiterating what feminism means.
In an interview with Reuters, she said, in utter bewilderment, how many misconceptions there are about feminism. “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. It’s very confusing,” she added.
While it is not news that a woman badmouthed or criticized another woman for her choice, it remains startling how females themselves don’t understand that advocating for women’s rights also means letting them make their own choice, embrace themselves, and be who they want to be as long as they are not causing harm to anybody.
Even high-profile feminist Gloria Steinem believes that a feminist is not a bad feminist by revealing her body. “Feminists can wear anything they f****** want. They should be able to walk down the street nude and be safe,” Steinem told TMZ.
Coincidentally, this issue came out just before the world celebrated International Women’s Day on March 8. The special day “celebrates the social, economic, cultural and political achievement of women,” according to International Women’s Day website.
Yet no matter how many achievements Watson has achieved: she starred in hit movies and campaigned for equal women’s rights, among others, a single photo, it appears, has the potential to erase every good thing she has done. And that is just disappointing.
So, do we really need feminism?
In many aspects, women are still left behind. Gender gap is still wide and apparent.
More men are holding government posts than women, with an international average of 21.9 percent of women in national legislature. In the Philippines, for instance, data from the Commission on Election show that more men participate and win in previous election years. In 2013, only 19.92 percent of elected officials were female, a stark contrast from 79.75 percent men.
There are also industries deemed dominated by men, such as engineering where there is about 87 percent gap of applicants between male and female.
Admittedly though, women have come a long way from the time when female have no rights to vote nor work outside of their home. But the journey is not yet over, not with patriarchy, misogyny, and rape culture remaining rampant.
And here comes the importance of feminism. It doesn’t mean that women should overpower or outnumber men, but instead, both genders should have equal rights, equal treatment, and equal opportunity.