Emma Watson ‘Confused’ Why Feminists Can’t Have Boobs After Revealing Vanity Fair Photo
British actress and card-carrying feminist Emma Watson hit back at critics who called her fake after her revealing Vanity Fair photo. The 26-year-old "Harry Potter" star said the issue itself "confused" her as she talked about what's more revealing than her Vanity Fair shoot. This gave the actress an opportunity to explain once and for all what feminism truly means.
Emma Watson addressed Saturday during an interview with Reuters the issue which she simply reduced as the mistaken idea that she "couldn't be a feminist and have boobs." The controversy, she said, "confused" and "just quietly stunned" her. But this doesn't mean she's keeping her mouth shut. The UN Women Goodwill Ambassador said there's something more telling in the criticisms hurled against her than the revealing Vanity Fair photo, shot by renowned fashion photographer Tim Walker, which captured the actress flaunting the curves of her breasts wearing only a white crocheted top.
"It just always reveals to me how many misconceptions and what a misunderstanding there is of what feminism is," she said. The "Beauty and the Beast" actress then gave a brief lecture on how feminism is all about freedom, liberation, equality, "about giving women choice" and "not a stick with which to beat other women with." She concluded, "I really don't know what my tits have to do with it!"
The backlash started when British radio presenter and commentator Julia Hartley-Brewer accused Emma Watson of being a hypocritical feminist in her tweet. Hartley-Brewer elaborated on what she considered a "hypocrisy" as she later tweeted that the pioneer of the HeForShe campaign "complains that women are sexualised and then sexualizes herself in her own work." Watson, who "felt incredibly artistic," as well as "creatively involved and engaged" in the revealing Vanity Fair photo shoot, found a champion in the renowned feminist movement leader herself Gloria Steinam. Steinam laughed hard at Watson's critics before she lashed out that "feminists can wear anything they f****** want" and that includes being able to "walk down the street nude and be safe."