Emma Watson and Taylor Swiftly Destroy Misogyny & Raise Self Confidence Amongst Those Who Listen

By: Lauren Smith

Who is Emma Watson? Critically acclaimed British actress in those Harry Potter movies, yes, but she’s more than that, she’s deeper. Yet, this is how we see her, this is how America, and those teenage girls who admire her, and even I for a while knew Emma Watson by. She’s respected, but she’s not demanded. Emma started her career as child actress at the age of 9 when she was casted as the role of opinionated and “voice of reason” Hermione Granger, female best friend of Harry Potter, and has continued through her teenage years and even into adulthood stemming into other film categories and maturer roles. Watson even maintained her college education at Brown University through it all. Watson said, “I want to be normal, I really want anonymity..." (People Magazine, 2010). She studied at Oxford University for one semester and then resumed at Brown after completing the Harry Potter finale movie.

However, she has slowly begun striving more over the years to place her workings and even self in new directions besides just fame and films; things such as charity work and female power campaigns. She felt that her childhood had been so far placed within the Harry Potter movies that she didn’t really ever get to investigate and discover herself and further indulge in her curiosity for things like art and cultural skews. Emma is not a wallflower by any means as previously casted as “Samantha” in Perks of Being a Wallflower; she sees things, she understands, and she speaks up about them. However, near the end of the movie, Sam (Watson’s character) speaks for every young woman with a burning heart, a radiant soul, and a devouring need to experience all that life has to offer: “I’m going to do what I want to do. I’m going to be who I really am. I’m going to figure out what that is.” and this is extremely relevant to what Watson then began doing herself. Watson began dispersing herself into various charities such as supporting and donating to schools for deaf children, St. John’s Medical School, The Shelter Box (International Disaster Relief) and UNIFEM (the support of gender equality, human rights, and women).

Emma strongly supports children's rights, but in recent years has even more strongly taken on a campaign called ‘HeforShe’ which supports gender equality and feminism. UN Women Goodwill Ambassador, Emma Watson, spoke at a special event for the HeForShe campaign at the United Nations Headquarters in September of 2014. Emma spoke about the many issues in society today like: the idea behind “men’s culture”, gender inequality, and clarifying the definition of feminism saying that people just need to come together and just be kind and supportive. Emma emphasized on the equality behind males and females saying, “if you’ve got a beating heart and you care about things, that’s so great.” because expression and feeling your feelings is so important nowadays especially for men and boys. This movement really empowered many women and men who listened within the UN and even more so the after talk up about it on social media really sparked up and became huge even more on Facebook. The campaign delves into so many ideas that seem controversial but once uncovered and actually discussed are so very simple...“We need yin and yang. We need that balance. We need female representation. We need female leadership.” There’s a big problem with female access in the film industry, it is just as profound as it is in any other field, affecting those wealthy and glamorous too. While still young, Emma has taken on this role as Women Goodwill Ambassador just as wholeheartedly and even more so as she would any character in a movie. She has proudly spoken her ideas for the campaign and allowed them to blossom like a wallflower, and yet wanting to take action, speak up, end bad things, and create new brilliant ones. She has become so very well respected through these past years as a young role model to girls and women alike.

Who is Taylor Swift? The once country artist gone pop who pours her heart and soul into love songs about ex boyfriends? Yes, but, that’s only one very tiny aspect of her and that’s the aspect that media adores harping on and exacerbating, that’s the part of Taylor Swift that silly teenage boys love to emphasize. She’s deeper, and her “swifties” and women young and old and every age in between would agree otherwise too. It’s all too clear that she’s cheer captain of the pop universe… Taylor Swift boldly states in an interview with Daily Beast her thoughts on feminism: “A man writing about his feelings from a vulnerable place is brave; a woman writing about her feelings from a vulnerable place is over sharing or whining. Misogyny is ingrained in people from the time they are born. So to me, feminism is probably the most important movement that you could embrace, because it's just basically another word for equality.”

A young Taylor was once poorly and unfairly portrayed in media as as something of a pathetic boy chaser, a female singer who used her lyrics to express heartbreak about the latest boy who got away. But what the media didn’t know was this whole time that Taylor had been getting her heart broken by silly stardom boys, she had been building her toughest skin and her confidence and her empowerment for women grew inside her. What the media didn’t know was that through her catchy love songs she was growing a girl power fandom that stood by her through every heart break, every lovely tune, and every teardrop on her guitar. Taylor has these fans that love her like a sister and like their main role model because she connects with them, she writes things that they can relate to. Within her performances she talks with the audience and she pours her heart out on stage all the while making them fun and lively; the audience falls even more in love with Taylor. Swift first built her fan base on her underdog appeal, embracing the role of the daydreaming outsider on her early hits like “You Belong With Me,” but with the world-conquering obsession of 1989 and its smoothed-over pop sound, she’s confident about her work and where she stands in the industry, without ever being stuck up. In between songs Taylor often addresses her fans in endearing and inspiring motivational speeches about self-confidence, heartbreak, and the pitfalls of comparing yourself to others. Taylor especially talks about personas online and the value of self love during a show in Ireland:

“Every single time I go online and talk to you and hear the things that you are going through, it occurs to me how incredibly difficult it has become to be happy with your life in 2015… And the mistake we’re making is that when we scroll through the pictures that other people post online of their lives, you’re seeing the highlight reel of the most excellent, shiny, fabulous moments of their lives. When you look in the mirror at yourself, you’re seeing behind all the scenes, all the stuff that no-one else sees and you’re hearing your own securities, and you’re hearing the voices inside your head telling you that you might not be good enough...Here’s what you are actually not: you’re not somebody else’s opinion of you. You are not damaged goods if you made mistakes. And you are not going no-where just because you haven’t gotten to where you want to go yet.”

Taylor not only was able to speak this message to the tens of thousands of fans watching during the two nights she was there performing but the message then spread even further to those who shared the video on facebook, instagram, twitter, and tumblr… Die hard “swifties”, people who maybe only like her most recent album, boys, girls, men, and women can all relate to that speech, they can all understand what she was saying and maybe connect to it, really truly let it sink in deep within their minds. As stated in the previous speech given, Taylor writes back to many fans via social media. Whether they post something on tumblr about being bullied or post a picture of themselves with her, she will sporadically comment back a ‘thank you, I love you’ or a heartfelt intelligent response that makes you truly feel that she cares, she’s looking out for you, and that she’s more than just a celebrity. Taylor last year around the holidays made individualized care packages for people with stuff that included favorites of theirs, personalized art they hand made, or things she thought they would enjoy. It simply goes to show Taylor is truly a remarkable individual with a spark and love for people as well as a love for creating catchy ballads.

While both young rising women, Taylor and Emma, are very different, they are both very similar. They care about people and they want equality and self love for all. Their ways of going about so are quite different too of course; as Emma’s causes and campaigns are somewhat less accessible while Taylor’s are broader with live shows and an audience and fan base, they share a same goal. Their “looks” are different, Taylor’s possibly tainted due to a commercialized appearance, and Emma’s business formality pursuit. Yet, these two amazing young role models speak up about some hard things people necessarily don’t want to discuss, they inspire people, they stand for things they believe in and things they love, and they go about so in their own ways all the while remaining classy and still achieving. They’ve got a ways to go, but small steps every day in their own ways have proven so far, to be successful.

Works:
http://www.goss.ie/2015/07/taylor-swift-gives-inspirational-speech-to-her-irish-fans/
http://www.vogue.com/865432/emma-watsons-new-day/
http://www.biography.com/people/emma-watson-20660247#synopsis
http://www.laweekly.com/music/stop-shitting-on-taylor-swifts-feminism-5839618