Emma Watson He For She Speech A comparative
Solomon Amadiume
Response paper to Emma Watson HeForShe Campaign speech at the UN: A comparative to “An Open Letter to Emma Watson by Malvika Jaganmohan & Kamelyia Akkouche
On the 20th of September, Emma Watson, actress renowned for playing Hermoine Granger in the Harry Potter series and now a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador gave a speech at the United Nations advocating for women’s rights and promoting the United Nations new HeForShe initiative. While she mad multiple valid points during her speech, there are many things mentioned that made me raise my eyebrow and wonder if the speech was really much of a game changer or just an okay speech that was overhyped by different media outlets. Prior to writing this response paper, I read a multitude of other responses from other feminists as to what they thought of the speech. One that stuck out to me was “An Open Letter to Emma Watson” by my good friend Malvika Jaganmohan and used it as a reference point as another feminist voice vs. my own. Ms. Watson discussed everything from Feminism, to her privilege, to inviting men to be part of the discourse when discussing Women’s rights. Again, many things she discussed had the good, the bad and the ugly. Many could argue that Emma gave a watered down speech as to what being a feminist was, what feminist ideals were and that her speech was geared towards appeasing men and I could see why that would make many feminists angry.
“This is the first campaign of its kind at the UN: we want to try and galvanize as many men and boys as possible to be advocates for gender equality.” (Watson, 2014)
While yes, allowing men to be part of the discourse seems like a good idea in theory, but the problem with any gender equality campaign being reliant on the actions of men is the fact that you’re appealing to the exact group of individuals whose sole interest is upholding the status quo. The same status quo that has left many women powerless. With the terminology as a whole HeForShe, that
Response paper to Emma Watson HeForShe Campaign speech at the UN: A comparative to “An Open Letter to Emma Watson by Malvika Jaganmohan & Kamelyia Akkouche
On the 20th of September, Emma Watson, actress renowned for playing Hermoine Granger in the Harry Potter series and now a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador gave a speech at the United Nations advocating for women’s rights and promoting the United Nations new HeForShe initiative. While she mad multiple valid points during her speech, there are many things mentioned that made me raise my eyebrow and wonder if the speech was really much of a game changer or just an okay speech that was overhyped by different media outlets. Prior to writing this response paper, I read a multitude of other responses from other feminists as to what they thought of the speech. One that stuck out to me was “An Open Letter to Emma Watson” by my good friend Malvika Jaganmohan and used it as a reference point as another feminist voice vs. my own. Ms. Watson discussed everything from Feminism, to her privilege, to inviting men to be part of the discourse when discussing Women’s rights. Again, many things she discussed had the good, the bad and the ugly. Many could argue that Emma gave a watered down speech as to what being a feminist was, what feminist ideals were and that her speech was geared towards appeasing men and I could see why that would make many feminists angry.
“This is the first campaign of its kind at the UN: we want to try and galvanize as many men and boys as possible to be advocates for gender equality.” (Watson, 2014)
While yes, allowing men to be part of the discourse seems like a good idea in theory, but the problem with any gender equality campaign being reliant on the actions of men is the fact that you’re appealing to the exact group of individuals whose sole interest is upholding the status quo. The same status quo that has left many women powerless. With the terminology as a whole HeForShe, that
References: Jaganmohan, M., & Akkouche, K. (2014, September 30). Open Letter to Emma Watson: Your UN address was not a ‘game-changer’ | Beaver Online. Retrieved October 26, 2014, from http://beaveronline.co.uk/dear-emma-watson-your-un-address-was-not-a-game- changer