Emma Watson: We Need People to Feel the Need for Gender Equality "in Their Bones"

The HeForShe leader launched the UN campaign's Arts Week with a powerful message.


Emma Watson ended the night of her 18th birthday with a scary taste of what womanhood in Hollywood looks like—an experience that years later sticks with her. "I mean, I was obviously a child actress who made—who is still making a transition," she said with a laugh, speaking at HeForShe's Arts Week launch at New York City's Public Theater this morning.

"[But] I remember on my 18th birthday, I came out of my 18th birthday party, and photographers lay down on the pavement and took photographs up my skirt, which were then published on the front page of the English tabloids the next morning. If they published the photographs 24 hours earlier, they would have been illegal. But because I had turned 18, they were legal. And obviously, you know, Dan [Radcliffe] and Rupert [Grint] who are my male [Harry Potter] costars don't wear skirts, but I think that's one example of how my transition into womanhood was dealt with very differently by the tabloid press than it was for my male [costars]."

The actress also encouraged everyone―not just women―to stand up for gender equality. One way to do that? The arts. Films, books, and art can make a real difference, Watson believes: 

There's a great quote from a woman who happened to be both an artist and an activist and one of my favorite, favorite women, Maya Angelou. She said, "I've learned that people will forget what you've said. People will forget what you did. But people will never forget how you make them feel." It's one of the reasons that I am an actress, it's why I love what I do, it's what the arts do, if it's done well, they make you feel. …Study after study show the logic and value of gender equality in commerce, politics, and peace building. But we have to do more than help people see the logic with their minds. It's also about making them feel it in their bones. This really, emotionally—this is what changes us. It's what makes us act. You can't unwatch great films, you can't unread incredible books, you can't unsee groundbreaking art. They change you forever. ...Social progress can inspire art, and so the arts can inspire social progress.

And people can make a difference just by being active bystanders, Watson added: "Often when we see conflict or we see things that we aren't really comfortable with, it kind of feels easier to look the other way or you know, we feel like it's not our place. It's not the right moment or it would be easier to kind of just let this happen quietly but actually empowering people to know and to think that it's their role when they see something that isn't right to say something about it...that's how we define being an active bystander. When you talk to most women and you talk to most men, they can name a moment in their lives when they were a witness to a moment where a man or a woman was treated unfairly because of their gender, and it just takes someone calling out, you know, and it can be done lots of different ways."

Learn more about HeForShe and the program's Arts Week here.

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