Emma Watson has been feeling the heat this week after nearly topless photographs of her were released in this month's Vanity Fair. Watson, 26, has caused a social media frenzy, as controversy between the Watsoners and the Beyhive are taking over Twitter.
Fans from both sides are speaking out, calling Watson a hypocrite and an anti-feminist.
Emma Watson is hypocrite. Now that she is being attacked for the same thing she attacked Beyonce for 5 years ago, it is problem. Girl bye.
— Ᏸecca🥀 (@MJStarLover) March 5, 2017
In an interview with BBC, Watson, who is a UN Goodwill Ambassador and the creator of the United Nations HeForShe campaign, fought back, stating that she finds the entire thing to be confusing and a huge misconception.
“It just always reveals to me how many misconceptions and what a misunderstanding there is about what feminism is.” said Watson. “Feminism is about giving women choice. Feminism is not a stick with which to beat other women with. It’s about freedom, it’s about liberation, it’s about equality. I really don’t know what my tits have to do with it. It’s very confusing.”
Watson's actions are being questioned as hypocritical after she made a statement in 2014, in which Watson slammed Beyonce for over sexualizing herself in her music videos for her self-titled album. Claiming that Beyonce was not a feminist.
"As I was watching [the videos] I felt very conflicted,” said Watson in an interview with Wonderland magazine. “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."
Now Watson is facing scrutiny and fans are fighting back on Twitter:
Emma Watson: "Feminism, feminism... gender wage gap... why oh why am I not taken seriously... feminism... oh, and here are my tits!" pic.twitter.com/gb7OvxzRH9
— Julia Hartley-Brewer (@JuliaHB1) March 1, 2017
i literally hate how emma watson is playing the victim abt this whole thing when she was slutshaming women a year ago
— Isabelle (@freshonlybakery) March 5, 2017
Watson is stunned by the reaction that she has been receiving, and she found the Vanity Fair photographs to be an artistic expression. Although there has been backlash, her fans have been fighting back and promoting a strong feminist message:
Yes Emma Watson can expose her breasts AND still be a feminist. Of course she can.
— Garbage (@garbage) March 6, 2017
“Feminism is about giving women choice. Feminism is not a stick with which to beat other women with."- And this is why I love Emma Watson.👏🏻
— Gemma (@slightgem) March 6, 2017
Ting Ting Chen
Kyla Rain
Christiana Birch
Charlotte Entwistle