4:15am September 24, 2014

➸ The sexual threats against Emma Watson are an attack on every woman

ex0skeletal:

On September 21, actress and UN Goodwill Ambassador Emma Watson stood up at the UN Headquarters in New York City and delivered a powerful speech condemning the harm that gender discrimination causes to both men and women, and inviting men to become active participants in the…

In my opinion, the best response to this vilification of Emma Watson is to SIGNAL BOOST THE HECK out of her speech on feminism. Let HER voice, HER words be spread so far and wide that it drowns out the voices of the people trying to attack her. I found a full text transcript of her speech here, I hope some of my followers will go forth and SIGNAL BOOST this:

http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/emma-watsons-speech-on-feminism-at-the-united-nations-is-amazing/story-fnixwvgh-1227066459159

(There is also a 14-minute video of her speech at the bottom of that page, but since it has no captions I had to ignore it. If you’re deaf like me, just scroll down a bit at the link to read the full transcript.)

I’ve seen another article that says the threatened nude pictures are apparently a hoax. Which is good since no one should have nude photos of themselves floating around without their own consent. But to me the key thing is, people opposed to feminism are attacking Emma for her views, and making threats and trying to intimidate her and other women into silence. And that’s not okay. And that’s why I think it’s worth those of us who support equality for people of all genders doing something to help. And signal boosting, signal boosting, signal boosting Emma Watson’s speech is one way to do this.

I’m copy/pasting a few quotes and excerpts from her speech below, but please click on the link to read the full transcript:

““Today, we are launching a campaign called HeForShe. I am reaching out to you before we need your help. We want to end gender inequality and to do this, we need everyone involved. This is the first campaign of its kind at the UN. We want to try to galvanise as many men and boys as possible to be advocates for change and we don’t just want to talk about it. We want to try and make sure that it’s tangible.”

…

“When I was 8, I was confused about being called ‘bossy’ because I wanted to direct the plays that we would put on for our parents. But the boys were not. When at 14, I started to be sexualised by certain elements of the media, when at 15, my girlfriends started dropping out of their beloved sports teams, because they didn’t want to appear ‘muscle-y,’ when at 18, my male friends were unable to express their feelings, I decided that I was a feminist. And this seems uncomplicated to me. But my recent research has shown me that feminism has become an unpopular word.”

…

“I am one of the lucky ones, my life is a sheer privilege because my parents didn’t love me less because I was born a daughter. My school did not limit me because I was a girl. My mentors didn’t assume that I would go less far because I might give birth to a child one day. These influencers are the gender equality ambassadors that made me who I am today.”

“They may not know it, but they are the inadvertent feminists who are changing the world today. We need more of those and if you still hate the word, it is not the word that is important. It’s the idea and the ambition behind it. Because not all women have received the same rights that I have. In fact, statistically, very few have been.”

…

“Men, I would like to take this opportunity to extend your formal invitation.” [Applause break] “Gender equality is your issue too. Because to date, I’ve seen my father’s role as a parent being valued less by society despite my needing his presence, as a child, as much as my mother’s. I’ve seen young men suffering from mental illness, unable to ask for help, for fear it would make them less of a man.”

…

“We don’t want to talk about men being imprisoned by gender stereotypes but I can see that they are. When they are free, things will change for women as a natural consequence. If men don’t have to be aggressive, women won’t be compelled to be submissive. If men don’t need to control, women won’t have to be controlled.”

“It is time that we all see gender as a spectrum instead of two sets of opposing ideals. We should stop defining each other by what we are not and start defining ourselves by who we are. We can all be freer and this is what HeForShe is about. It’s about freedom.”

Again, the full transcript is at http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/emma-watsons-speech-on-feminism-at-the-united-nations-is-amazing/story-fnixwvgh-1227066459159, Read and signal boost.