Emma Watson did a photo shoot for Vanity Fair to promote her upcoming live-action remake of Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast,” which has been controversial with rednecks and Russians, not for its portrayal of interspecies love, but for its openly gay character played by Josh Gad, and because the photos featured a little bit more of her breasts than a conservative housewife would like to see, arguably the greatest feminist in the world has now been branded anti-feminist by some.
Social media debate what feminism is
The debate on social media that Watson has sparked feeds into the Trevor’s Axiom theory from “South Park.” Her photo shoot ticked some people off and then their anger over it ticked some other people off and so on and so forth until everyone on social media is no longer debating whether or not Watson can still be considered a feminist, but rather what it actually means to be a feminist, which can be fuzzy sometimes.
Radio presenter Julia Hartley-Brewer branded Watson a hypocrite, tweeting that she “complains that women are sexualised” before she goes and “sexualises herself.” Watson has responded to the controversy in an interview during her press tour for the Film, saying she is “confused” by it and that there has been a “misunderstanding” regarding the content of her Vanity Fair shoot.
Sam Smethers, head of the Fawcett Society, an organisation fighting for women’s rights and gender equality, is on Watson’s side in the matter, saying that a somewhat raunchy photo doesn’t make her unfeminist, since in the grander scheme of things, she has “done more for women and for young girls than most of us put together,” so nobody “should be criticising her” for the photo shoot.
Smethers says that Watson is “an empowered woman who is posing for a very tasteful image,” and added that the image complies with feminist values of “not being exploited” and not being in “a controlling position,” calling the photo “a positive use of her body.”
Sexist News say controversy is ‘daft’
Sexist News, who despite their name, actually fight against sexism, with such campaigns as the one to end topless models being featured on Page 3 of The Sun newspaper, are all for Watson “exploring and championing feminism having grown up in the public eye,” and say that the controversy surrounding her photo shoot is “daft,” since it is “not a debate that we have about men’s fashion shoots.”
The University of West England’s feminist researcher Dr.
Finn Mackay believes that there are much more important things to debate about women and gender than the Emma Watson photo shoot controversy, such as “abortion,” “access to healthcare,” or “mothers’ access to welfare,” saying that “a Hollywood celebrity flashing a bit of boob is really the least of my worries.”
