tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/emma-watson-12521/articles
Emma Watson – The Conversation
2019-12-02T03:24:04Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/126716
2019-12-02T03:24:04Z
2019-12-02T03:24:04Z
Spinster, old maid or self-partnered – why words for single women have changed through time
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/302967/original/file-20191121-554-tvhvzv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C14%2C3115%2C2212&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In a recent interview, was Emma Watson embarrassed to admit she was single?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/emma-watson-los-angeles-premiere-beauty-592363856?src=3065d265-6c62-4797-bff6-445d832f2511-2-96">Tinseltown/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In an interview with <a href="https://www.vogue.co.uk/news/article/emma-watson-on-fame-activism-little-women">Vogue</a> in 2019, actress Emma Watson opened up about being a single 30-year-old woman. Instead of calling herself single, however, she used the word “self-partnered.” </p>
<p>I’ve studied <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/never-married-9780199237623?lang=en&cc=us">and written about</a> the history of single women, and this is the first time I was aware of “self-partnered” being used. We’ll see if it catches on, but if it does, it will join the ever-growing list of words used to describe single women of a certain age. </p>
<p>Women who were once called spinsters eventually started being called old maids. In 17th-century New England, there were also words like “<a href="https://www.whimn.com.au/love/dating/unmarried-and-over-26-theres-a-name-for-women-like-you/news-story/8e72155c24a8fc79719512d7597b4f08">thornback</a>” – a sea skate covered with thorny spines – used to describe single women older than 25.</p>
<p>Attitudes toward single women have repeatedly shifted – and part of that attitude shift is reflected in the names given to unwed women.</p>
<h2>The rise of the ‘singlewoman’</h2>
<p>Before the 17th century, women who weren’t married were called maids, virgins or “puella,” the Latin word for “girl.” These words emphasized youth and chastity, and they presumed that women would only be single for a small portion of their life – a period of “pre-marriage.” </p>
<p>But by the 17th century, new terms, such as “spinster” and “singlewoman,” emerged.</p>
<p>What changed? The numbers of unwed women – or women who simply never married – started to grow.</p>
<p>In the 1960s, demographer John Hajnal <a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/115001673/John-Hajnal-1965-European-Marriage-Patterns-in-Perspective">identified</a> the “Northwestern European Marriage Pattern,” in which people in northwestern European countries such as England started marrying late – in their 30s and even 40s. A significant proportion of the populace didn’t marry at all. In this region of Europe, it was the norm for married couples to start a new household when they married, which required accumulating a certain amount of wealth. Like today, young men and women worked and saved money before moving into a new home, a process that often delayed marriage. If marriage were delayed too long – or if people couldn’t accumulate enough wealth – they might not marry at all. </p>
<p>Now terms were needed for adult single women who might never marry. The term spinster transitioned from describing <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/spinster-meaning-origin">an occupation that employed many women</a> – a spinner of wool – to a legal term for an independent, unmarried woman.</p>
<p>Single women made up, on average, <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/never-married-9780199270606?cc=us&lang=en&">30% of the adult female population</a> in early modern England. <a href="http://www.localpopulationstudies.org.uk/PDF/LPS68/LPS68_2002_26-41.pdf">My own research</a> on the town of Southampton found that in 1698, 34.2% of women over 18 were single, another 18.5% were widowed, and less than half, or 47.3%, were married. </p>
<p>Many of us assume that past societies were more traditional than our own, with marriage more common. But my work shows that in 17th-century England, at any given time, more women were unmarried than married. It was a normal part of the era’s life and culture.</p>
<h2>The pejorative ‘old maid’</h2>
<p>In the late 1690s, the term old maid became common. The expression emphasizes the paradox of being old and yet still virginal and unmarried. It wasn’t the only term that was tried out; the era’s literature also <a href="https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001911725">poked fun</a> at “superannuated virgins.” But because “old maid” trips off the tongue a little easier, it’s the one that stuck.</p>
<p>The undertones of this new word were decidedly critical.</p>
<p>“<a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/33875142?q&versionId=41687269">A Satyr upon Old Maids</a>,” an anonymously written 1713 pamphlet, referred to never-married women as “odious,” “impure” and repugnant. Another common trope was that old maids would be punished for not marrying by “leading apes in hell.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304302/original/file-20191128-178107-8obrgo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304302/original/file-20191128-178107-8obrgo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304302/original/file-20191128-178107-8obrgo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304302/original/file-20191128-178107-8obrgo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304302/original/file-20191128-178107-8obrgo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304302/original/file-20191128-178107-8obrgo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=619&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304302/original/file-20191128-178107-8obrgo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=619&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304302/original/file-20191128-178107-8obrgo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=619&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A 1797 print depicts three ‘old maids’ leading strings of apes in hell.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://research.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1539514&partId=1">© Trustees of the British Museum</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At what point did a young, single woman become an old maid? There was a definitive line: In the 17th century, it was a woman in her mid-20s.</p>
<p>For instance, the single poet Jane Barker wrote in her 1688 poem, “<a href="http://www.poetryexplorer.net/poem.php?id=10036317">A Virgin Life</a>,” that she hoped she could remain “Fearless of twenty-five and all its train, / Of slights or scorns, or being called Old Maid.”</p>
<p>These negative terms came about as the numbers of single women continued to climb and marriage rates dropped. In the 1690s and early 1700s, English authorities became so worried about population decline that the government <a href="http://www.localpopulationstudies.org.uk/PDF/LPS68/LPS68_2002_26-41.pdf">levied a Marriage Duty Tax</a>, requiring bachelors, widowers and some single women of means to pay what amounted to a fine for not being married.</p>
<h2>Still uneasy about being single</h2>
<p>Today in the U.S., <a href="https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/visualizations/time-series/demo/families-and-households/ms-2.pdf">the median</a> first age at marriage for women is 28. For men, it’s 30. </p>
<p>What we’re experiencing now isn’t a historical first; instead, we’ve essentially returned to a marriage pattern that was common 300 years ago. From the 18th century up until the mid-20th century, <a href="https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/families/marital.html">the average age at first marriage</a> dropped to a low of age 20 for women and age 22 for men. Then it began to rise again.</p>
<p>There’s a reason Vogue was asking Watson about her single status as she approached 30. To many, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/oct/27/marriage-by-this-age-babies-by-that-age-when-will-we-stop-giving-women-deadlines">age 30 is a milestone for women</a> – the moment when, if they haven’t already, they’re supposed to go from being footloose and fancy-free to thinking about marriage, a family and a mortgage.</p>
<p>Even if you’re a wealthy and famous woman, you can’t escape this cultural expectation. Male celebrities don’t seem to be questioned about being single and 30.</p>
<p>While no one would call Watson a spinster or old maid today, she nonetheless feels compelled to create a new term for her status: “self-partnered.” In what some have dubbed the “<a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2017/04/the_history_of_self_care.html">age of self-care</a>,” perhaps this term is no surprise. It seems to say, I’m focused on myself and my own goals and needs. I don’t need to focus on another person, whether it’s a partner or a child. </p>
<p>To me, though, it’s ironic that the term “self-partnered” seems to elevate coupledom. Spinster, singlewoman or singleton: None of those terms openly refers to an absent partner. But self-partnered evokes a missing better half.</p>
<p>It says something about our culture and gender expectations that despite her status and power, a woman like Watson still feels uncomfortable simply calling herself single.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/126716/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amy Froide does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Attitudes toward single women have repeatedly shifted – and part of that attitude shift is reflected in the names given to unwed women.
Amy Froide, Professor of History, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/72674
2017-03-13T11:30:22Z
2017-03-13T11:30:22Z
A traditional tale with titillating twists: Beauty and the Beast gets reinvented (again)
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/160339/original/image-20170310-19259-fyu9u5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=617%2C5%2C1112%2C772&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">© 2016 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved..</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In Jeanette Winterson’s <a href="http://www.jeanettewinterson.com/book/oranges-are-not-the-only-fruit/">Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit</a> (1985), the young female narrator stumbles upon a book of fairy tales and recoils at the story of Beauty and the Beast, musing: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>There are men in the world.<br>
And there are beasts.<br>
What do you do if you marry a beast?<br>
… Did that mean that all over the globe, in all innocence, women were marrying beasts?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The narrator’s literal reading hints at the most obvious interpretation of the fairy tale, which sees a comeback this month in Disney’s live action remake of the classic 1991 animated Oscar-winning film starring Harry Potter star Emma Watson. </p>
<p>Originally published in 1740 by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve, the fairytale was subsequently rewritten and abridged by another French woman, Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont, 16 years later. On a crudely symbolic level, Beauty and the Beast tells the tale of a young woman taming her fear of masculinity – of the size and savagery of men, of the secrecy surrounding sexuality. For that to happen, she must detach herself from her father. Their mutual love, as she reaches adulthood, must evolve – her request that he pluck a rose for her, with all its implications of romance, must, we subtly understand, remain unrealised.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/160342/original/image-20170310-19278-flnk98.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/160342/original/image-20170310-19278-flnk98.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160342/original/image-20170310-19278-flnk98.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160342/original/image-20170310-19278-flnk98.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160342/original/image-20170310-19278-flnk98.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160342/original/image-20170310-19278-flnk98.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160342/original/image-20170310-19278-flnk98.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Beauty and her father.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© 2016 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Beyond this psychoanalytical reading, Beauty and the Beast draws some of its success from transportable moral lessons: never judge anyone on their appearance; love someone for who they are inside (although when you’re Beauty, the Beast somehow isn’t required to make the same effort of imagination).</p>
<h2>Good old-fashioned Disney</h2>
<p>But those explanations do not exhaust the mystery of why the fairy tale continues to fascinate all over the globe. There are straightforward adaptations – from Jean Cocteau’s superlative surrealistic take in 1946 to the 2014 Christopher Gans film – but also countless rewritings, most notably Stephenie Meyer’s wildly successful <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08164649.2010.546327">Twilight series</a> (from 2005). And this year, we are treated to a new version starring Emma Watson.</p>
<p>The trailers for Disney’s latest have drawn a colossal amount of views, and make for interesting further interpretions. If the 2017 Beauty and the Beast trailer strikes such a chord, it isn’t just because it exploits the power of the original tale. It’s also because of the other references it contains.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/160341/original/image-20170310-19242-68f6c4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/160341/original/image-20170310-19242-68f6c4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160341/original/image-20170310-19242-68f6c4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160341/original/image-20170310-19242-68f6c4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160341/original/image-20170310-19242-68f6c4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160341/original/image-20170310-19242-68f6c4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160341/original/image-20170310-19242-68f6c4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Books trump flowers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© 2016 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Those glimpses of the film show us a visual evocation of the much beloved 1991 Beauty and the Beast so striking as to be almost self-plagiarised. In some shots, the extremely stylised, beautifully coloured houses and castle recall the hand-painted, still backdrops to older Disney films like Snow White. There is, as far as we can tell, no attempt at the irony, self-consciousness and sarcasm that have plagued Disney and Pixar films in the past decade. Songs are back. This is real, good old-fashioned Disney again: designed for a grandparent’s perfect afternoon with their grandchildren.</p>
<p>But the trailers are also ideal bait for my generation, the so-called millennials, many of whom would cite the 1991 version as their favourite Disney film – and especially for a special brand of millennial: the bookworm feminist. Belle has always been an ideal projector screen for girl readers: she manages to be at once a book lover, an educator, passionately desired by handsome men, and a brave adventurer. Amazingly, she finds a man who loves reading too (in one <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvW_L8sTu5E">trailer</a>, the Beast says he has read almost every book in his gigantic library).</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OvW_L8sTu5E?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>Belle Watson</h2>
<p>Belle is arguably one of Disney’s best role models for girls; it’s not saying much, but it’s better than nothing. And it’s clear that the 2017 version is taking that identification and aspirational potential of Belle to its pinnacle. </p>
<p>The choice of Watson for the lead is clever. We cannot see Watson without seeing Harry Potter’s best friend Hermione Granger – another cult bookworm warrior. And it’s not just a character we see. In recent years, Watson has graduated from Brown University, taken on the role of the <a href="http://www.unwomen.org/en/partnerships/goodwill-ambassadors/emma-watson">UN Women Goodwill Ambassador</a>, and founded a <a href="http://time.com/4172664/join-emma-watsons-feminist-book-club/">feminist book club</a>. She is not just as an actor, but an activist, already worshipped by young women for her brains and her beauty. In 2016 she made headlines for hiding feminist books on the tube. Disney probably had to do little to make her character plausible.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/BMSFySJlhWW/?taken-by=emmawatson\u0026hl=en","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>In recent weeks, the advertising campaign has taken an interesting turn. First, there have been rumours that for the first time in Disney’s history, the film will feature hints of <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/beauty-and-the-beast-gay-character-disney-le-fou-gaston-cinema-russia-boycott-a7614641.html">unrequited homoerotic attraction</a>. These claims, however, were quickly toned down <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2017/03/04/russia-beauty-and-beast-ban-due-over-gay-character-lefoux/98743116/">by the director</a>. </p>
<p>Simultaneously, Watson found herself accused of <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-39177510">lacking feminist spirit</a> after posing for Vanity Fair in a relatively revealing top. These two publicity twists are titillating, but tame enough. They have injected some scandal into the advertising campaign, but in very homeopathic proportions, cannily offsetting the traditional feel of the trailer.</p>
<p>This upcoming version will probably be a very successful, earnest, beautiful film, which will, if not surprise, at least delight. But doubtlessly, as with all versions, we will leave slightly disappointed at the ultimate transformation of the Beast into a man like all others (Cocteau pushed the allusion to the point of getting the same actor, Jean Marais, to play both the Beast/Prince and Belle’s boorish suitor, Gaston).</p>
<p>There is something sobering, indeed a little boring, about the traditional ending of Beauty and the Beast. Why leave the magical beast for just a normal man? Let’s hope that in some way this new version reinvents that disenchantment a little.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/72674/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Clementine Beauvais does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
What do you do if you marry a beast?
Clementine Beauvais, Lecturer in English in Education, University of York
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/42752
2015-07-27T01:31:37Z
2015-07-27T01:31:37Z
Democracy needs heroes to champion the cause
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84042/original/image-20150605-14135-1qqtivs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">'Goddesses of Democracy' in the 21st century: Thomas Marsh sculpted a replica (left) in Washington DC of the statue destroyed in Tiananmen Square in 1989; on the 21st anniversary of the massacre, Hong Kong students erected a statue on campus (centre) after police had seized a plastic replica.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bootbearwdc/2933017700/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/96941606@N00/4670834290 https://www.flickr.com/photos/laihiu/4679799584/">Flickr/DB King; Flickr/Ryanne Lai; Flickr/Ryanne Lai</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Laureates, like symbolic <a href="http://www.undp.org/goodwill/">ambassadors</a> and <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-11-22/labor-to-introduce-a-gender-and-sexuality-commissioner/5911330">commissioners</a>, draw attention to causes and issues that we, as a society, consider to be of widespread importance. </p>
<p>In various parts of the world, <a href="http://www.nobelprize.org/">medicine, physics, chemistry, economics, literature, peace</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poet_Laureate_of_the_United_Kingdom">poetry</a>, <a href="http://www.childrenslaureate.org.au/">children</a>, <a href="https://www.eed.state.ak.us/aksca/literature.html">writing</a>, <a href="http://www.arc.gov.au/ncgp/laureate/laureate_default.htm">research</a> and <a href="http://rfkcenter.org/">human rights</a> all have the dedicated service of their own laureates. </p>
<p>For all these fields and interests, plus many more, governments and organisations approach people deemed to be great at what they do. The idea is that these people will then lend their renown – and sometimes their celebrity – to draw public attention to, and become heroes of, the causes we deem vital for the common good. </p>
<p>However, democracy – despite being considered by many as the only legitimate form of government, an ideal that countless people around the world have pinned their hopes to now and in centuries past – has no laureates to call its own. No stars are explicitly in its service. </p>
<p>Sure, there have been a number of “ambassadors for democracy” during the 19th and 20th centuries. People like <a href="http://reference.sabinet.co.za/sa_epublication_article/derebus_n538_a3">Nelson Mandela</a>, places like <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF02353985">colonial Williamsburg</a>, even countries like <a href="http://www.terveilm.ee/leht/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/valispol2010Andrespok.pdf">Estonia</a>, <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/aspp.12163/full">India</a> and the <a href="http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5503&context=etd&sei-redir=1&referer=http%3A%2F%2Fscholar.google.com.au%2Fscholar%3Fstart%3D10%26q%3D%2522ambassador%2Bfor%2Bdemocracy%2522%26hl%3Den%26as_sdt%3D0%2C5#search=%22ambassador%20democracy%22">United States</a> have all in one way or another been associated with championing the cause of democracy. </p>
<p>Fictional characters, too, like <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0141620020250106#.VRmwti5V7qo">Mickey Mouse</a> and <a href="http://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr=&id=Hhq5pjy6CgYC&oi=fnd&pg=PA91&dq=%22ambassador+for+democracy%22&ots=nAdIYy93ID&sig=p9R1c0F2azkzDp2VoBQ-YferH80#v=onepage&q=%22ambassador%20for%20democracy%22&f=false">Superman</a>, have had the label of ambassador of democracy thrust on them. But all these people, places and characters received the title only retrospectively or in an off-hand, critical and facetious manner.</p>
<p>Democracy needs prospective, pro-social laureates to draw attention to it. We think this is so for three reasons.</p>
<h2>Representative democracy is under siege</h2>
<p>The first reason is that representative democracy, the most used model of democracy in the world today, is widely <a href="https://theconversation.com/european-movements-could-mark-the-end-of-representative-politics-42369">considered</a> to be <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10361146.2015.1037824#.VXIg88-eDGc">under siege</a>. In academic circles, writing about the so-called <a href="http://berghahn.publisher.ingentaconnect.com/content/berghahn/demt/2014/00000001/00000002;jsessionid=4dgg3a9u3unsg.alice">crisis of democracy</a> has turned into a notable cottage industry. </p>
<p>It’s not just academics who think so. There’s also a popular impression that these democracies are ineffective at getting things done. Many believe that representative politics has become irrelevant to our day-to-day concerns. Average citizens tend to think that representative democracy is not only repulsive, but also a joke (a look at question time in Westminster-styled parliaments will prove this point). </p>
<p>Yet research is <a href="http://moadoph.gov.au/democracy/democratic-audit/">increasingly showing</a> that these impressions are overblown and often incorrect. With a few reforms, democracies can be made more efficient, relevant and attractive to us. Democracy is more important now than ever.</p>
<p>Laureates are needed to draw attention to the causes of <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-end-of-representative-politics-41997">ailing representative democracies</a>. Most of us don’t know about these ailments and even less about the medicines that can be prescribed to bring democracies back to life. This, among other things, is a job that democracy laureates can do. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84047/original/image-20150605-14138-lqkoby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84047/original/image-20150605-14138-lqkoby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84047/original/image-20150605-14138-lqkoby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84047/original/image-20150605-14138-lqkoby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84047/original/image-20150605-14138-lqkoby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84047/original/image-20150605-14138-lqkoby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84047/original/image-20150605-14138-lqkoby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84047/original/image-20150605-14138-lqkoby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Many feel that democracy is under attack.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Guecho,_Gran_Bilbao,_Espa%C3%B1a._Monumento_a_Churruca.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Old democracies have stood still</h2>
<p>Second, laureates can publicise the new democratic innovations that scholars have been pushing for years. It’s a sad fact that too few Westminster-styled democracies employ democratic innovations already in use in supposedly “less democratic” countries. </p>
<p>Countries like mainland China, Vietnam, Brazil and Yemen are increasingly at the forefront of institutionalising innovations like <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/futuretense/citizens-juries-and-deliberative-democracy/5762684">deliberative juries</a>, <a href="http://participedia.net/en/cases/icelandic-constitutional-council-2011">citizens’ councils</a>, <a href="http://universitypost.dk/article/new-danish-party-alternative-wants-change-politics">public policy co-production</a> and <a href="http://theconversation.com/digital-town-halls-take-political-discussions-beyond-sound-and-fury-38761">digital</a> or <a href="https://www.ndi.org/Yemen-televised-town-halls">televised town-hall meetings</a>. </p>
<p>There’s a growing impression, especially in China or Vietnam, that citizens in these “non-democratic” countries are culturally more democratic in the way they live their lives and <a href="http://www.cambridge.org/au/academic/subjects/politics-international-relations/political-theory/practices-freedom-decentred-governance-conflict-and-democratic-participation">co-govern</a> with local governments than the citizenries in “full democracies” like Australia, the US, Canada and the UK.</p>
<p>That’s a tremendous irony, because it’s predominantly the Westminster-styled regimes that claim to be the democratic leaders. But these days it’s the non-English-speaking democracies, and some of the countries labelled as “flawed democracies” or “non-democracies”, that top the charts when it comes to democracy innovation. </p>
<p>Shouldn’t the countries claiming to be the best democracies in their spheres of influence – the US, the UK and Australia, for example – be leading the way in using democratic innovations to cure representative democracy of its ailments? A democracy laureate can point out this irony – and give credit where it’s due.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84048/original/image-20150605-14105-ula24f.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84048/original/image-20150605-14105-ula24f.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84048/original/image-20150605-14105-ula24f.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84048/original/image-20150605-14105-ula24f.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84048/original/image-20150605-14105-ula24f.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84048/original/image-20150605-14105-ula24f.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84048/original/image-20150605-14105-ula24f.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84048/original/image-20150605-14105-ula24f.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">China has more ‘town hall’ meetings than the US, UK and Australia. Does this make China’s citizenry more democratic?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Shanghai_students_in_Town_Hall_meeting.JPG">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Stories of democracies are neglected</h2>
<p>The third reason is unlike the first two in that it does not deal with the present day. Instead, this reason hinges upon past and future conceptions of democracy. </p>
<p>Scholars now tell us that the histories and futures of <em>democracies</em> are almost constantly being retold if not re-imagined. Scholars are uncovering forgotten democracies and their <a href="http://www.palgrave.com/page/detail/the-secret-history-of-democracy-benjamin-isakhan/?K=9780230244214">secret histories</a> or the potential futures presented to us by things like <a href="http://www.cambridge.org/au/academic/subjects/politics-international-relations/comparative-politics/democratic-innovations-designing-institutions-citizen-participation">democratic innovations</a>. Imagine a world of <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=IZuCBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA177&lpg=PA177&dq=simon+niemeyer+mass+participation&source=bl&ots=WwYGYVfioN&sig=Zsdhf1CJdY-hwbxx9NbfFISG-SI&hl=en&sa=X&ei=bRdxVd2pKojj8AWmw4C4Dg&ved=0CDQQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=simon%20niemeyer%20mass%20participation&f=false">mass</a>, worthwhile and peaceful democratic politics predicated on people co-governing with their governments.</p>
<p>Despite how vital it is for us to understand where democracy has come from, why it functions the way it does today and where it might take us, this information is in large part unavailable to people outside the cloistered walls of the university. Democracy’s many stories are both important and interesting, but ultimately little known.</p>
<p>If democracy really is as crucial to this world as many claim it to be, then it deserves laureates explicitly in its service. The stability and improvement of our democracies today depends on us knowing what its problems are and how we can solve them. Demystifying its past and properly understanding its future trajectories should be important to democrats everywhere.</p>
<p>It’s essential that we come to know all the different stories – past and future – about democracy in this world that go untold. Will no hero champion this cause?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/42752/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Democracy – despite being considered by many as the only legitimate form of government – has no laureates to call its own.
Jean-Paul Gagnon, University Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Australian Catholic University
Mark Chou, Associate Professor of Politics, Australian Catholic University
Octavia Bryant, Doctoral Candidate, National School of Arts, Australian Catholic University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/32024
2014-09-29T04:54:15Z
2014-09-29T04:54:15Z
Emma Watson’s UN speech: what our reaction says about feminism
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/60266/original/ybjwmvg6-1411967162.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The fallout from Watson's UN speech suggests we're far from gender equality. </span> </figcaption></figure><p>It is now more than a week since actress Emma Watson delivered what has repeatedly been described as a <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2767642/Five-magical-moments-Emma-Watson-s-game-changing-sexism-speech-best-reactions-web-s-feminists.html">“game-changing”</a> speech about sexism at the United Nations New York headquarters. The response to the speech, which launched the UN’s <a href="http://www.heforshe.org/">HeForShe</a> campaign for gender equality, has been massive, but not universally positive.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCS-xxFJzw8">Watson’s speech</a>, which extended a “formal invitation” to men to participate in conversations about gender equality, has been highly praised, radically critiqued, and acted as a spur to a <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/sep/24/threat-post-naked-photographs-emma-watson-hoax-4chan">bizarre hoax</a> involving a threat to publish nude photographs of Watson. </p>
<p>Just how can young feminists get their message across in such a complicated climate?</p>
<h2>Did Watson really change the game?</h2>
<p>Much of Watson’s speech contained fairly basic points about feminism that have nevertheless been distorted in light of the increasing normalisation of anti-feminism, as is evident in the <a href="http://womenagainstfeminism.tumblr.com/">#womenagainstfeminism</a> hashtag. Watson is right that feminism is not innately about “man hating”. Nevertheless, a number of feminists have clarified that not hating men does not necessarily equate to needing the direct involvement of men to advance women’s rights.</p>
<p>As <a href="http://www.blackgirldangerous.org/2014/09/im-really-emma-watsons-feminism-speech-u-n/">Mia McKenzie</a> points out at Black Girl Dangerous, it is simplistic to assume men have not been involved in work toward gender equality simply because they haven’t been “invited”. McKenzie argues that the more logical reason why men have not been extensively involved is because they “benefit HUGELY (socially, economically, politically, etc. infinity) from gender inequality and therefore have much less incentive to support its dismantling”.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Q0Dg226G2Z8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Emma Watson’s speech to the UN.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A number of feminists, including Australian journalist <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/comment/emma-watson-speech-hardly-a-gamechanger-20140925-10lhz9.html">Clementine Ford</a>, took issue with Watson’s emphasis on “men being imprisoned by gender stereotypes” and men’s “freedom” being the key to changing the situation for women. As Ford notes, while patriarchal structures do have some negative consequences for men, their affect on men is different and not as “drastically violent” as their toll on women. Moreover, men systematically benefit from the power conferred on them by those gender stereotypes.</p>
<p>In contrast, girls and women are more likely to find themselves unable to receive an education, being subject to violence or sexual assault, being paid less than men, or unable to make their own life decisions. </p>
<p>For example, it’s now almost <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/14/nigeria-girls-kidnapped-5-months_n_5791622.html">six months</a> since 270 Nigerian schoolgirls were captured by Boko Haram, who oppose girls’ education and are likely using the girls as domestic and sexual slaves. The international <a href="http://www.unicef.org.au/Discover/unicef-australia-blog/May-2014/BringBackOurGirls.aspx?gclid=CIWowPKthcECFYGWvQoddBMAVA">#BringBackOurGirls</a> campaign has not been able to free a single one.</p>
<p>Watson’s speech has also been critiqued for ignoring the issue of intersectionality. The gender inequality that she describes as part of her experiences (being called “bossy” as a child, being sexualised by the media, and having friends who abandon sport because they don’t want to become “too muscly”) is the kind that affects comparatively privileged, white, middle-class, Western women.</p>
<p><a href="http://blackfeministkilljoy.tumblr.com/post/98266792208/why-i-am-not-praising-emma-watsons-speech">Blackfeministkilljoy</a> and <a href="http://the-middle-eastern-feminist.tumblr.com/post/98229099014/the-failures-of-emma-watsons-un-speech">The Middle Eastern Feminist</a>, among others, explain that women of colour experience different kinds of discrimination to those that Watson has felt. Yet her speech made no reference to how other women’s lives might differ, or might be more difficult because the effects of gender, race, class, sexuality, class and disability discrimination can magnify each other. </p>
<p>The voices of women who lack the privilege of a wealthy, white woman like Watson – those who suffer most at the hands of gender inequality – have not been given the same platform or the same global attention.</p>
<p>In addition, Watson has also been criticised for <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2014/09/emma-watson-not-right-woman-job-20149245235239187.html">reinforcing the gender binary</a>, thereby dismissing the issues facing transgender people – though transgender model Geena Rocero has <a href="http://new.livestream.com/Mashable/English2014/videos/62870094">spoken out</a> in support of Watson’s definition of gender as “a spectrum”.</p>
<h2>Could Watson ever please everyone?</h2>
<p>Many of the points raised by feminists about Watson’s speech, including <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/neha-chandrachud/emma-watson-un-campaign_b_5883200.html">questioning</a> just how effective an online pledge will be in changing the violence and discrimination enacted on women, have merit. But there is little about Watson and her speech, including her highly feminine appearance, her nervous delivery, and her heterosexuality that has escaped criticism.</p>
<p>Feminists have been careful to explain they are not aiming to tear Watson down and to acknowledge that elements of her speech could provide an accessible introduction to feminism. Yet the ability of white, privileged celebrity to act as a spokesperson for women’s rights on a global scale is immensely fraught.</p>
<p>It is Watson’s fame and image that make her the kind of person who can inspire widespread interest in the topic of women’s rights. Yet those same qualities are also seen as detrimental to the cause because they work to present a concept of gender equality that is palatable to men, as does the HeForShe campaign.</p>
<p>The question is whether a marketable and non-threatening brand of feminism founded on the most acceptable model of femininity could every really dislodge the power structures that make such an approach necessary in the first place.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/32024/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Smith has previously received funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>
It is now more than a week since actress Emma Watson delivered what has repeatedly been described as a “game-changing” speech about sexism at the United Nations New York headquarters. The response to the…
Michelle Smith, Research Fellow, Centre for Memory, Imagination and Invention, Deakin University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/32153
2014-09-25T06:32:29Z
2014-09-25T06:32:29Z
126,000 reasons why the Emma Watson hoax isn’t all bad news
<p>In less than a week since actor <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emma_Watson">Emma Watson</a>’s stirring United Nations speech on gender inequality, two big things have happened – but you’ve probably only heard about one of them.</p>
<p>The first, which has driven days of global headlines, is that the 24-year-old actor (best known for her role in Harry Potter films) soon copped a backlash, including what appeared to be an online threat to publish naked photos of her. That’s now been shown to be a complicated hoax; more on that and what it has revealed shortly. </p>
<p>The other big thing that’s happened has received far less attention, but it’s much more heartening. </p>
<p>In only a few days, more than 126,000 men and boys have pledged their support for the new <a href="http://www.heforshe.org/">HeforShe campaign</a> to end gender inequality – beating <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HeForShe">the original target of 100,000 supporters</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/60014/original/742jskrp-1411625733.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/60014/original/742jskrp-1411625733.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/60014/original/742jskrp-1411625733.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=328&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/60014/original/742jskrp-1411625733.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=328&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/60014/original/742jskrp-1411625733.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=328&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/60014/original/742jskrp-1411625733.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/60014/original/742jskrp-1411625733.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/60014/original/742jskrp-1411625733.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The map of global #HeforShe supporters as of Thursday 25 September 2014, 4:15pm AEST.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">http://HeforShe.org/</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>You can see how many have signed up <a href="http://www.heforshe.org/">in your country on the site’s interactive map</a>. The campaign’s <a href="http://www.takepart.com/article/2014/09/24/celeb-feminists?cmpid=tp-twtr">male supporters</a> include fellow actors Matt Damon, Patrick Stewart, Russell Crowe and Keifer Sutherland, and now thousands more from around the world.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/p-iFl4qhBsE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Watson’s passionate and moving speech at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, above, has already been viewed more than 4 million times on YouTube. You can <a href="http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2014/9/emma-watson-gender-equality-is-your-issue-too">read it in full here</a>, but highlights include:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I started questioning gender-based assumptions when at eight I was confused at being called ‘bossy’, because I wanted to direct the plays we would put on for our parents—but the boys were not. When I was 14, I started being sexualised by certain elements of the press. When at 15, my girlfriends started dropping out of their sports teams because they didn’t want to appear ‘muscly’.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Not limiting the speech to gender difficulties faced by only women, Watson described how gender stereotypes hurt men and boys too:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I’ve seen young men suffering from mental illness unable to ask for help for fear it would make them look less ‘macho’. In fact, in the UK suicide is the biggest killer of men between 20-49; eclipsing road accidents, cancer and coronary heart disease. I’ve seen men made fragile and insecure by a distorted sense of what constitutes male success. Men don’t have the benefits of equality either.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Watson’s speech won a standing ovation inside the UN and even greater applause beyond. But it wasn’t long before her strong stand on gender equality triggered a backlash.</p>
<h2>A double hoax</h2>
<p>Only a day after her speech, a mysterious website and a blog’s “news” story speculated that a hacker was about to publish naked photographs of Watson, just as happened recently to stars including <a href="http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/celebrity-life/jennifer-lawrence-nude-photos-leaked-hacker-posts-explicit-pics/story-fn907478-1227043406704">Jennifer Lawrence</a>.</p>
<p>That sparked a media frenzy. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/59986/original/cnnbzdpf-1411617867.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/59986/original/cnnbzdpf-1411617867.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/59986/original/cnnbzdpf-1411617867.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=317&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/59986/original/cnnbzdpf-1411617867.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=317&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/59986/original/cnnbzdpf-1411617867.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=317&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/59986/original/cnnbzdpf-1411617867.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/59986/original/cnnbzdpf-1411617867.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/59986/original/cnnbzdpf-1411617867.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A hoax “news story”, now removed from the internet, which sparked the global controversy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">via Business Insider</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The world watched as the website www.emmayouarenext.com counted down the hours to when purportedly private photos would be released. Just as disturbing as the website itself were many of the comments about it, including “That feminist bitch Emma is going to show the world she is as much of a whore as any woman”, and “She makes stupid feminist speeches at UN, and now her nudes will be online, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH”.</p>
<p>Instead of talking about the content of her speech, social media was ablaze with outrage at hackers, particularly the image-based website <a href="http://www.4chan.org/">4chan</a>, which appeared to be linked to the Watson attack site.</p>
<p>Finally, on Wednesday September 24, the countdown was supposedly over – but there were no naked photos. Instead, users were directed to rantic.com, a webpage claiming to be devoted to shutting down 4Chan, complete with a petition to US President Barack Obama.</p>
<p>And as if it couldn’t get any weirder, it now appears that even that “advertising company” rantic.com is <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com.au/emma-watson-naked-photo-countdown-hoax-2014-9">actually a fake</a>, and the whole thing is the work of a group of serial internet hoaxers known as <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/entertainment/emma-watson-nude-countdown-socialvevo-4chan/">socialVEVO</a>.</p>
<p>So what have we learnt from this elaborate hoax, which duped millions of people including many in the global news media?</p>
<h2>Easy targets</h2>
<p>Why was it so easy to believe that anonymous, angry internet “trolls” would immediately recoil at Emma’s suggestion of gender equality, and attack her privacy by publishing naked photos? (If any actually exist, that is.)</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/60001/original/6hfjpdb9-1411621136.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/60001/original/6hfjpdb9-1411621136.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/60001/original/6hfjpdb9-1411621136.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/60001/original/6hfjpdb9-1411621136.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/60001/original/6hfjpdb9-1411621136.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/60001/original/6hfjpdb9-1411621136.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/60001/original/6hfjpdb9-1411621136.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/60001/original/6hfjpdb9-1411621136.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
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</figure>
<p>Unfortunately, it was easy to believe because too often women <em>are</em> victimised online, particularly in sexualised ways, and particularly when they take a stand on gender equality as Watson did.</p>
<p>It is ironic that in her speech, Watson declared:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I think it is right that I should be able to make decisions about my own body.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This is the exact sentiment that was threatened. The fact that this threat was just a hoax – the motives for which are still unclear – does not excuse the manipulation used to generate this attention. </p>
<p>Whether intended or not, the message to women that’s been reinforced over the past few days have been all too clear: speak out and you will be targeted. </p>
<p>And even if the website was a fake, the public response to it – which included vicious and perverse comments about Watson being a whore – were sadly all too real.</p>
<p>But if there is one glimmer of good news out of all this, it’s that the extra attention garnered by the controversy has driven more people – particularly men and boys – to back the <a href="http://www.heforshe.org/">HeforShe campaign</a>, on its website and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/heforshe">on social media</a>. These are just some of the thousands so far.</p>
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<p>But amid so much focus on nude photos and hoaxes, we shouldn’t forget what Watson’s speech was all about: gender inequality.</p>
<p>Too many men and women around the world still live with emotional and social restrictions because of gender stereotypes – and that has to end. </p>
<p>The last word should go to Watson, who answered her critics and her own self-doubts in her speech.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>You might be thinking who is this Harry Potter girl? And what is she doing up on stage at the UN? It’s a good question and trust me, I have been asking myself the same thing. I don’t know if I am qualified to be here. All I know is that I care about this problem. And I want to make it better … English Statesman Edmund Burke said: ‘All that is needed for the forces of evil to triumph is for enough good men and women to do nothing.’ In my nervousness for this speech and in my moments of doubt I’ve told myself firmly — if not me, who? If not now, when?</p>
</blockquote><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/32153/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Evita March does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
In less than a week since actor Emma Watson’s stirring United Nations speech on gender inequality, two big things have happened – but you’ve probably only heard about one of them. The first, which has…
Evita March, Lecturer of Psychology, Federation University Australia
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.