‘If not me, then who? If not now, when?’
On July 8 2014 , Emma Watson was named a United Nations Women Goodwill Ambassador. Two months in, she has already launched a crucial campaign “He for She” which involves extending a “formal invitation” to men to participate in the conversation about gender equality. “Gender equality is your issue too,” said the Harry Potter star. The purpose is is to create “a solidarity movement for gender equality that brings together one half of humanity in support of the other half of humanity.”
The word ‘feminism’ has been linked to man-hating. Watson therefore, quite rightly invited men to join the conversation for gender stereotypes. “Both men and women should feel free to be sensitive. Both men and women should feel free to be strong,” she said. This is not a question of gender or sex, this is a question of equal rights. We need men to join the feminist pursuit of social justice because it is the right thing to do. It is a matter of human rights, not of enlightened self-interest. The speech focused on societal misconceptions of the feminist movement and instead of focusing on the word “feminist,” she put the spotlight on the mission and ambition behind the word.
At the end, Watson announced a “uniting movement”, UN Women’s HeForShe campaign. The initiative essentially involves a petition that men are invited to sign, committing themselves to “take action against all forms of violence and discrimination faced by women and girls”. However, a movement is more than a petition. A movement is made up of people who work tirelessly to change the circumstances of their own lives as well as those of the people around them, generation after generation. He for She is exactly that.
I want men to take up this mantle,” she said. “So their daughters, sisters and mothers can be free from prejudice but also so that their sons have permission to be vulnerable and human too — reclaim those parts of themselves they abandoned and in doing so be a more true and complete version of themselves.”