Emma Watson’s topless photo shoot to Sonam Kapoor’s plunging neckline: What’s that got to do with feminism?
Emma Watson has appeared in Vanity Fair’s March issue. One of the pictures in the cover story reveals too much of Emma’s breasts (see the picture below). Emma who will be seen next in Disney’s live-action movie, Beauty and the Beast, is talking about feminism (besides other things) in the story. The juxtaposition of her photograph and her views about feminism haven’t gone down well with many. The photo shoot has sparked a new debate on feminism. While some have called her a ‘hypocrite’, others have cited her photo shoot as an example of ‘bad feminism’.
Closer to home, Sonam Kapoor’s black dress made headlines for revealing too much and even going as far as to question her motive behind wearing it. Various photographers went out of their way to take photographs of the actor that was highly distasteful. Sonam had to reply with a smart tweet, “sexist nonsense. The photogs went out of their way to take these pics.. and frankly, I don’t give a damn, I’m proud of my body.” Both actors have gone ahead and given full-fledged interviews to different publications, explaining their motives behind wearing a certain outfit.
While nobody bats an eyelid when a male actor does the same thing, women often become the victim of expressing themselves freely.
Should there really be a line for women’s freedom? How can a dress define a woman’s intelligence or her stand on certain issues? Can a woman’s topless photo shoot for a magazine be an ’empowering’ act? Does it have anything to do with feminism? Does it propagate the idea of feminism? Or is is just a pure hypocrisy at best?
Emma has portrayed Hermoine, one of the most feminist characters of our times. The actor, over the years, has positioned herself as feminist. She is also the UN ambassador for HeForShe campaign intending to bring gender equality.
A distraught Emma recently in an interview with Reuters, “There are so many misconceptions and misunderstandings about feminism. Feminism is about giving a woman a choice, it’s not a stick with which to beat other women. It’s about freedom and liberation. It’s about equality. I really don’t know what it has to do with my t*ts. I am confused. I am always quietly stunned. That particular shot felt so incredible because it was so artistic.”
Apparently, many trollers have pointed out than Emma is being a hypocrite after she gave a statement about Beyonce, “As I was watching [Beyoncé’s visual album] I felt very conflicted, I felt her message felt very conflicted in the sense that on the one hand, she is putting herself in a category of a feminist, but then the camera, it felt very male, such a male voyeuristic experience of her.” However, Emma is not labeling Beyonce as an anti-feminist in this statement. She said it very clearly that she was very conflicted.
Sonam in an interview with Femina also put her thoughts quite clearly, “It baffles me how if I have an opinion, I am brash and if a man has an opinion, he’s considered confident.” The actor further said, “They were like, how can you be a feminist, you wear designer clothes. I turned around and asked them if they even knew what feminism meant. Just because I’m not burning my bra and I do my brows, it does not take away from my feminism. It just means I’m celebrating the fact that I’m a girl.”
We can’t imagine male actors giving clarification over a photo shoot or choosing to wear particular clothes. Why does it happen with women only? Emma and Sonam are first and foremost artistes. They were just doing their jobs. In a way, they were just expressing themselves through their work. Let’s not forget, they would have worked very hard to be able to enjoy that amount of freedom. However, recent controversies remind them again that there should be a ‘limit’ to their freedom.
Thank god, they didn’t heed to that mindset.
Courtesy : indianexpress
