Harry Potter star, Emma Watson has remained in the public eye for most of her life – growing up alongside her co-stars and under the gaze of the world’s populace. The child actor quickly grew to be one of the strongest voices campaigning for gender equality. The path of the sets of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone where she is now hasn’t been marked by unwavering inspiration, but using her publicly acclaimed platform has become a necessity after the relentless objectification the actress has faced since her early formative years. .
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Emma Watson remembers her horrible 18th birthday
The star student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry who went on to live her life and full limitless potential as soon as she stepped outside the sets of the Harry Potter movies ignored the limits the paparazzi would go for an image. Emma Watson, as a teenager, then became more aware of the unjustified aspects that accompanied her cinematographic fame.
On the night of her 18th birthday, the social predators who haunt celebrities for ‘candid’ photos lay down on the sidewalk outside where she was supposed to be having her party to click photos up her skirt – a practice that a rare handful of paparazzi consider today. inhuman and overstepping boundaries. In 2016, during a HeForHer launch event, Emma Watson remembers that particular night saying,
“I mean, I was obviously a child actress who’s still in transition, and I remember my 18th birthday, I walked out of my 18th birthday party and photographers lay down on the sidewalk and took pictures. photos under my skirt, which were then published on the front page of the English tabloids the next morning. If they had published the photographs 24 hours earlier, they would have been illegal, but as I turned 18, they were legal.
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Emma Watson then began speaking out more about feminist ideals, equal gender representation and equal pay. In recent years, she has become UN Women’s Goodwill Ambassador and an advocate for HeForHer Campaign that fights for gender equality. In 2020, Watson also featured prominently in the news for becoming one of the first Harry Potter actors who have called out author JK Rowling over her anti-trans comments.
Emma Watson’s activism is rooted in her objectification
When Emma Watson tweeted, “Trans people are who they say they are and deserve to live their lives without being constantly questioned or told that they are not who they say they are.” he expressed the frustration and anger of generations of people whose identities have been subjected to binaries, or refuted or erased. However, the Harry Potter The actress had to navigate much of her personal conflict before emerging with a voice strong enough to call for the defense of other factions in global demographics.
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At a launch event for the HeForHer campaign, Emma Watson gave a dazzling speech in 2014 as UN Women’s Goodwill Ambassador in New York where she said, “I’m a feminist because I’ve known about sexism since I was eight years old.” The profound toxicity of society then becomes multiple in its need to be controlled, as the young actress advocated on several occasions before being shut down, and she later asserted, “I think a lot of people close to me knew gender equality was an issue, but they didn’t really think it was that urgent.”
Watson’s career then also becomes a significant case study of how the young actor’s strong philosophy and ideals shaped a career brilliantly marked by roles in films like Charlie’s world (2012), The beauty and the Beast (2017), and Little woman (2019).
His last appearance was in the HBO Max reunion documentary, Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts.
Source: HeForShe Arts Week