This week, Emma Watson appeared in Vanity Fair magazine in a top that revealed part of her breasts. Apparently this means she can’t be a feminist anymore. All of a sudden, the years of work she’s put in to being a UN goodwill ambassador for women is suddenly erased because she has breasts and decided to show the sides of them. Let’s not also forget the reason why she was in the magazine: to promote a film she’d made. You know, just doing her job.
There’s been lots of discussions online as to whether she’s allowed to be a feminist anymore, whether her breasts are undermining her work at the UN, if she’s too pretty to be a feminist, can she be intelligent when she’s showing off her breasts? and should she be advertising a Disney movie that way? Emma Watson exercising agency over her own body isn’t anti-feminist, it’s the opposite.
Here’s the thing: they’re just breasts. They’re just there. On her chest. Like mine are on my chest. Big deal. Anyone with enough estrogen has them. Goodness, even men have breasts, just not the gland bit. Breasts exist! And they’re wonderful, and sometimes completely useless, and for around a year after pregnancy, they do what they’re built for, and that’s it. Breasts have been a part of human anatomy since we developed these weirdly weak forms that can survive car crashes but some of them can’t survive the consumption of a hazelnut.
It seems that it doesn’t matter how hard a woman in the public eye might try to elevate feminism, they’re never good enough, don’t try hard enough, there’s always something wrong. It doesn’t matter what Emma Watson does, it will never be feminist enough. Meanwhile, Chris Brown can serially abuse women and win Grammys upon Grammys with complaints only from a select few.
This one story exemplifies this continuing strong desire to police women’s bodies, and to judge their character on them. Because she decided to wear something provocative, her belief systems have changed. She’s not allowed to say she supports the emancipation of women whilst wearing a revealing top, apparently. This kind of double standard follows women around for their entire lives, and frankly, it’s a nightmare. Sure, it’s not the worst thing that’s ever happened and there are probably more pressing issues surrounding gender equality, but it’s part of a wider pool of oppression that is betraying us all. Little girls who see that there are women who can’t even wear clothes without being vilified are going to deny themselves of opportunities that they should be going for, and have every right to go for. The outward ripples of women being denied autonomy over their own bodies extend for miles and miles, especially given this age of social media and constant instant connection. It almost seems like too much, given all the other drivel that women have to go through on a daily basis, to be policed over what we wear. But here we are.
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