Emma Watson He For She Speech

The Campaigner of the Year has cast a spell over the HeForShe campaign, which calls for a million men to sign up for gender equality

I t’s not often that UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon makes Harry Potter jokes, but after actor Emma Watson’s speech at the UN’s New York HQ last September, he declared she had waved a magic wand over her audience. The description was surprisingly apt. Watson was appointed UN Women Goodwill Ambassador in July 2014 and became involved in the organisation’s HeForShe campaign – which calls for one billion men to declare their support for gender equality. Watson was visibly nervous as she spoke, but what she said about her own experience of feminism and the confusion and unhappiness that gender stereotypes can create for men and women struck a chord. Women related to her stories about being called bossy, about being sexualised at too early an age. Men listened when she talked about the impact of mental illness or them being unable to express their emotions. She obviously spoke for a lot of people: the speech has been watched more than 7m times on YouTube and 331, 220 men have now signed up for the HeforShe campaign.

Watson also showed great equanimity about the inevitable backlash. Straight after the speech, a website appeared threatening to post naked pictures of Watson and efforts were made to make #RIP EmmaWatson trend on Twitter. Her response? “This is why I have to be doing this. If they were trying to put me off, it did the opposite.” She also made sure that the inspiring responses she received from men to her speech – men who supported her, men who wanted to make sure their daughters grow up in a fairer world – received as much publicity as the trolling. The campaign has won Watson not only the

Why I'm Not Really Here For Emma Watson's U.n. Feminism Speech

’s 100 Most Influential People list for 2015 (in at 26, and one of only four Britons on the list) and the Feminist Celebrity of the Year from the Ms Foundation for Women.

Emma Watson spoke about her own experience of feminism and the confusion and unhappiness that gender stereotypes can create. Photograph: Mark Garten/UN Photo

HeforShe may be her most high-profile campaign, but it’s not Watson’s first. Alongside the acting career she started at 11 and her studies at Oxford and Brown University in the US, Watson is a long-standing advocate of schooling for girls. She’s been an ambassador for Camfed International, which fights to educate girls in rural Africa, since 2012. Most recently, on behalf of the UN she’s been in Uruguay campaigning for women’s political participation (currently only 13% of Uruguay’s parliament are women, whereas the world average is 28%).

Emma Watson On International Women's Day: #heforshe

UN Women executive director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka thinks Watson is a strong voice for young people worldwide. “Her commitment to the issues that we work on at UN Women multiplies our ability to reach and engage more young people – who are key to advancing gender equality.” She’s absolutely right, but somehow that misses the unique quality Watson brings to all her work: a quiet determination to succeed and an enquiring mind coupled with the ability to be enthusiastic, open and vulnerable. When explaining a campaign message to the public, that’s a combination that’s better than magic.Evita March 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.

UN Women Goodwill Ambassador and actor Emma Watson launched the HeForShe Campaign at the United Nations headquarters in New York, 20 September. EPA/JASON SZENES

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.

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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.

In only a few days, more than 126, 000 men and boys have pledged their support for the new HeforShe campaign to end gender inequality – beating the original target of 100, 000 supporters.

You can see how many have signed up in your country on the site’s interactive map. The campaign’s male supporters include fellow actors Matt Damon, Patrick Stewart, Russell Crowe and Keifer Sutherland, and now thousands more from around the world.

A Newspaper Reporter Covered Emma Watson's United Nations Speech In The Most Offensive Way

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 read it in full here, but highlights include:

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’.

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.

Emma Watson Says She Was Nervous Before Delivering Gender Equality Speech

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.

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 Jennifer Lawrence.

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”.

Emma Watson's He For She Un Speech On Gender Inequality |

Instead of talking about the content of her speech, social media was ablaze with outrage at hackers, particularly the image-based website 4chan, which appeared to be linked to the Watson attack site.

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.

And as if it couldn’t get any weirder, it now appears that even that “advertising company” rantic.com is actually a fake, and the whole thing is the work of a group of serial internet hoaxers known as socialVEVO.

Emma Watson's Speech On Gender Equality

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.)

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.

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.

Speech: Emma Watson Heforshe

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.

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 HeforShe campaign, on its website and on social media. These are just some of the thousands so far.

Too many men and women around the world still live with emotional and social restrictions because of gender stereotypes – and that has to end.

Emma Watson Was Terrified Before Her Game Changing U.n. Speech On Feminism

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?actress, who is also a U.N. Women Global Goodwill Ambassador, delivered an inspiring speech about feminism at the United Nations Headquarters in New