Emma Watson Equality

In the essay, “Little Girls or Little Women? The Disney Princess Effect”, author Stephanie Hanes focuses on the sexualization of women especially young girls. Hanes explains how modern movies, magazines, and the internet force women to look and act a certain way which forces young girls to grow up thinking they have to be perfect. Hanes starts her essay off with a short story that the reader can connect with. Mary Finucane, the mother of Caoimhe, noticed that her daughter was becoming less and less interested in running, jumping and playing, but more interested in wearing dresses and waiting for her “prince.”

The author systematically organizes her argument by showing how a small issue can develop into a larger one. A person would least expect eating disorders, depression, and physical health problems to arise from a Disney Princess. However, Disney stated that for 75 years, millions of little girls and their parents have adored and embraced the diverse characters and rich stories featuring our Disney princesses.... [L]ittle girls experience the fantasy and imagination provided by these stories as a normal part of their childhood development (Hanes). In her article, Hanes mentions a case about Mary Finucane’s 3-year-old daughter Caoimhe. Finucane became aware of the situation when her daughter stopped doing things like running/jumping, and only wanted to wear dresses. She explained how her daughter would sit quietly while so called “waiting on her prince.” Finucane soon noticed that the reality around her daughter decreased along with her imagination. The rhetorical situation in this article starts with Finucane’s belief that her daughter’s discovery of Disney princesses was just the beginning for self-objectification to lead to cyberbullying, then unhealthy body images (Hanes). This case supported by several others explains why this is a concerning issue in our society today. It also justifies why parents need to pay more attention to their children and what they’re exposed to. To support valid points and ideas, Hanes made use of statistics and research in her article to show how self conscious girls were at a young age. For example, a poll from the University of Central

Fairy Tales have been around for hundreds of years, but up until recently have never been profited on as they are in today’s modern world. It is impossible to hide from anything Mr. Walt Disney has created, and that is exactly the company’s intentions. One huge area Disney has been excelling is in “Princess Culture” most specifically the focus on pretty pink dresses. For example, in Peggy Orenstein’s article “What’s Wrong with Cinderella?” the author addresses the many different consequences of Disney’s lucrative marketing strategy. The heavy influence of everything princess down to the choice of clothing can have a negative or positive impact on young girl’s minds, while stimulating innocence and purity can also encourage body image issues

She is one of the world’s most famous feminists in the twenty-first century. Since the age of eight, Watson has experienced gender-based assumptions that prepare her for a life of ridicule and degrading. She incorporates habit one in her life at the age of 14 when the press would start to sexualize her. Living a proactive life, her “expressions are seen as too strong, too aggressive, isolating, anti-men, and unattractive” (qtd. in Watson 1). In her speech, she describes what her goals are and what her rights should be. Watson began her journey with the end in mind, similar to the lesson habit two teaches. Her goal is to have equal rights for women and men

Emma Watson uses ethos to convince the audience that she is a credible source. Towards the beginning of her speech, Watson explained that her, “girlfriends [dropped]... out of sports…”(1) because appearing muscly would not fit their gender stereotype. Watson mentions her personal experience to make her credible. By mentioning this, people will know why she is familiar with feminism. Since she has experienced gender inequality firsthand, she knows why feminism is necessary and more people will find her as a reliable source. Later in her speech, she mentions a speech made by Hillary Clinton in 1997.

The way the female body is presented in Disney produced films represents current socio-cultural assumptions of what the female body should look like (Johnson). These princesses reflect social standards of beauty. To be beautiful you must be young, thin, attractive, and elegant.

The documentary “Miss Representation” deals with the idea that women are taught from a very young age that their looks and appearances are one of the most, if not the most, important aspects of themselves. Not their character nor their achievements, but how they dress and present themselves. The article Hetero Barbie?, By Mary F. Rogers, deals with this idea as well, and can be related back to this documentary. In schools, young girls are sexualized and feminized from a very young age, due to the media that surrounds them. These young girls are practically forced by society to “pay increasing attention to the size and shape of their bodies, the range and contents of their wardrobes, the styling of their hair, and the making up of their faces” (Rogers 128). The fact that these young girls are supposed to focus on their appearances in school, rather than their academics or on the desire to become a better human being, is taught to them by society and the media. The documentary mentioned previously discusses a lot on this topic. The idea of female characters being sexualized is common throughout every source of media, including child-like cartoons. The amount of female characters in rated-G Disney movies that are wearing scantily-clad clothing is profound, and is highly impressionable to the young viewers that may end up watching these films. The majority of these female characters are on a mission of sorts to win over a man’s true love. The commonality here is that if young girls see other females on the big screen being swooned over by men while wearing little clothing, they begin to understand that appearances are more important

Emma Watson recently spoke at a He For She conference to

We choose to follow the crowd, rarely does anyone dare to be different. Feminism has been a problem not just within one country but within the whole orbiting globe. Emma Watson believes that the world can change; men and women can become united and treated as equals.

The British actress, 26, revealed that she made her latest character Belle, from the new live-action film of Beauty and the Beast, into an independent woman, insisting she has a job after wondering, “What is she doing with her time?”

With fame came sexism and she began to be sexualised by the media. As she grew older she noticed the wage gap between her and a few of her co-stars throughout different films. Emma Watson remembers being called too bossy as a child because she always wanted to direct the plays at school or wanted the girls to take a larger part (Watson, Emma, UN Speech). As Watson began to realize more and more how women were treated differently, she also knew that she was one of the lucky few who received the right to education and was supported unconditionally by her mother and father. She knew that she wasn’t loved less by her parents because she was born a girl, and they had ever limited her to following any of her dreams.

Emma Watson’s story taught me that sexism can affect males and females. I learned that even though she experienced sexism, she did not let the experience bring her down. Instead, she took her experience and created a way to try and prevent it from happening to others. Emma Watson started her own campaign to end sexism and start increasing feminism, which is the equality between males and females. Emma Watson realized the way she was being treated was not right, and she had the strength to take action.

All over the world Feminism is a current topic of concern and there are very few advocates who are currently fighting for gender equality. In the media men and women are attempting to use their voices to fight for equal rights and get the message across to all generations. In this paper, I will be analyzing the movie Beauty and the Beast (2017) by drawing upon the feminist theory, which will demonstrate how the main female character, Belle challenges the modern-day system of inequality and the socially constructed gender roles. I will do so by examining why Emma Watson was chosen as the leading actress, how Belle is different than the other women in her town, the modifications from the original movie, and how Belle ultimately gets to decide her destiny. I will also consider why some people may view the film as anti-feminist, which will allow for me to understand a different perspective. It is my thesis that socially constructed gender identities are negatively presented in popular culture, however actors and actresses are attempting to use their influence to make an impact and move towards equality.

Feminism is often seen as a negative word towards women, but it actually represents the gender inequality for both men and women. In 2014, Emma Watson, a twenty-four-year-old British actress, and the UN Women Goodwill Ambassador co-hosted a special event for the UN Women’s HeForShe campaign. Before Watson was a UN Women’s Ambassador, she was known as a strong activist for women’s rights. The importance of the HeForShe campaign, which is a united movement, to spread and inform the gender equality awareness for both men and women to the public. As a speaker, Watson comes across to her audience as credible also reliable because she is a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador, she also sends her message across by building a trust relationship with the

Emma Watson, best known as a leading actress in the Harry Potter series, gave a speech titled “Gender equality is your issue too” during a HeForShe campaign at the United Nations headquarters in New York City during on September 20, 2014, in attempt to raise awareness about gender inequality. Throughout the speech, Watson attempted to persuade the audience in joining the HeForShe campaign by providing examples of those who have been subject to the burdens of gender inequality – however, this speech could be considered problematic due to Watson’s lack of credibility and failure to include all types of people in our society.