Vanity Fair Photo Controversy: Is Actress Emma Watson Anti-Feminist For Showing Her Breasts?
Actress Emma Watson's decision to expose part of her breasts in a photo shoot for Vanity Fair magazine sparked a heated debate on social media about what it means to be a feminist.
"She complains that women are viewed as sexual objects and then sexualizes herself in her own work, Hypocrisy," radio host Julia Hartley-Brewer wrote on Twitter.
The British actress and UN Women goodwill ambassador is on the cover of the March issue of Vanity Fair, which features photos of the controversy.
Hartley-Brewer's criticism was not the only one and a discussion soon sparked between those who branded the actress a hypocrite and those who defended that the young woman can do whatever she wants with her body.
Watson herself said she was confused by the accusations of being an anti-feminist and she responded that there is a great misunderstanding about what it means to be a feminist.
Can you show your breasts and still be a feminist? The BBC discussed the matter with several experts.
Representative of feminism
"Emma Watson has done more for women and young girls than most of us put together," says Sam Smethers, executive director of the Fawcett Society that advocates for gender equality and women's rights.
"The truth is that I do not agree that just because she made that decision we should criticize her," he continues.
"She is an empowered woman who poses in a tasteful image. She is not being exploited, she is doing it in a position of control. She is a positive use of her body."
The Sexist News group, which is behind the campaign to stop the British newspaper The Sun from using topless models on its page 3, said it is fascinated that the former Harry Potter star "explores and represents feminism having grown up in the public scene ".
The group believes that the discussion generated by the photo shoot is "stupid" and adds: "It is not a debate that arises around the fashion photo shoots of men despite the amount of garments that reveal their nipples."
"This example shows that someone like Emma Watson faces an even higher standard than many other women."
Double standards?
Interestingly, much of the criticism these days towards Watson comes from Beyoncé fans.
The American singer made an explicit defense of feminism in 2013 that was met with almost unanimous praise, except for the British actress.
In 2014, Watson said in an interview that Beyoncé's statements made her baffled:
"On the one hand, Beyoncé is placed in the category of feminist but then the camera feels very masculine, she is perceived as a voyeuristic experience for men," Watson noted.
Now Beyoncé's defenders are calling Watson inconsistent.
Social justice movement
Victoria Jenkinson, a 20-year-old member of the Girlguiding association, believes that the photograph has been used as an excuse to "create a stir around Watson and weaken her work in promoting women's rights."
"The photograph does not suggest hypocrisy or undermine her work as a feminist and we women must be united in the fight for equality now more than ever," she maintains.
"I don't understand why people think they can tell a woman what she can and cannot do, and I agree with Emma that the critics have not gotten the message," she adds.
"A woman must be able to choose what she wants to do. That is what feminism is all about in 2017."
But Finn Mackay, a researcher on feminism at the University of West England, rejects the movement's view as a matter of choice and says it is about social justice.
"Emma says feminism is about being able to choose and being able to do whatever you want, but that's nonsense," she says.
"Some women choose terrible things: some women choose to work for parties that deny women access to abortion, access to health, or mothers' access to social security."
Still, Mackay doesn't think Watson's pose for Vanity Fair means she's not a feminist.
"If she identifies as a feminist and believes in promoting women's rights, the fact that she does her job does not have to detract from that.
"If what she's trying to say is that being in a photoshoot and pulling a tit is a feminist act, that's something else."
But Mackay believes that the defense of feminism is most effective through the voice and not the body.
"The most radical thing that women in this culture can do is keep their clothes on and open their mouths to express political opinions," she says.
"Attack on feminism"
"The central issue in all of this is the pressure on young women to look a certain way, to be judged on their appearance, if we are going to focus on something for me that should be the priority," adds Smethers.
Mackay questions that the debate is reduced to a celebrity exposing her breasts more than to issues such as the economic position of women and cuts to services that assist women.
"A Hollywood celebrity showing a little tit is the last of my worries," she emphasizes.
"It's interesting that people are only talking about this now and that their real motivation seems to be attacking feminism rather than talking about the general problem Hollywood has with its objectification of women."
Sexist News adds: "We need to examine why this fashion image has caused so much anger. This is not to say that fashion or celebrity images are without problems, on the contrary."
"As always the focus is on what a woman should or should not do and not on how our culture presents, regulates and consumes women's bodies and condemns their actions.
"We need to challenge that, not the individual women trapped in the system."
