Emma Watson has revealed some seriously disturbing news about an incident that happened the day after she turned 18.
While she should have been hitting the pub for her first legal drink and relaxing with her mates the Harry Potter star had to put up with some creepy cameramen trying to get shots up her skirt. Eww.
Emma was demonstrating how she's treated differently to her male co-stars during a speech she made at the launch of He For She Arts week, "a celebration of gender equality in the arts" in New York.
Emma said: "I remember on my 18th birthday I came out of my birthday party and photographers laid down on the pavement and took photographs up my skirt, which were then published on the front of the English tabloid [newspapers] the next morning. If they had published the photographs 24 hours earlier they would have been illegal, but because I had just turned 18 they were legal."
Emma also spoke about other times she's been discriminated against because she's a woman in this month's Esquire UK. "I've had my [ass] slapped as I've left a room. I've felt scared walking home ... I don't talk about these experiences much, because coming from me they'll sound like a huge deal and I don't want this to be about me, but most women I know have experienced it and worse… this is unfortunately how it is. It's so much more pervasive than we acknowledge. It shouldn't be an acceptable fact of life that women should be afraid."
That actress said both men and women have a duty to confront events like these, adding that "feminism" should stop being a "scary buzzword" for guys in particular because it's about gender equality - and that's something that effects us all.
She said:"There's no point in me going, 'You all have to go away from having read this article and decide that you are a feminist. That's useless. The only thing that is going to make a difference is if men go away and speak to the women in their lives about what they are experiencing."
Esquire still wanted to know "Why should men care about gender equality?" so Emma spelt it out in her sophisticated style.
"It's important to note that it's not about us convincing you that gender equality is worth engaging in only because there might be something in it for you," she said. "Or in it for your sister or your mother.
"The question is, what's in it for humans? Martin Luther King said injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. I really do believe that. And the benefits on top of that? Happier, healthier, more successful children? Being able to take proper paternity leave and see your baby? Being able to talk to someone if you're feeling shit?
Actually getting to be yourself? Getting asked out by a woman? Better sex? A marriage that is a true partnership? More diverse and interesting perspectives in art, culture, business and politics? Getting to crowdsource all the innovation and genius in the world, not just half of it. A highly increased number of safe, confident and fulfilled people on the planet, particularly women? World peace? Seriously. World peace."
