Há seis meses, Emma Watson foi nomeada Embaixadora da Boa Vontade pela ONU e tem causado usando sua nova posição para, via Twitter, questionar e denunciar fatos como a política sexista na Turquia ou responder aos comentários machistas em relação ao hackeamento das fotos de celebridades nuas. Quando anunciou aos seus 13 milhões de seguidores no Twitter que estava iniciando um trabalho com a ONU, o site da organização caiu.
Nesta semana, a atriz causou grande repercussão ao fazer um discurso emocionado no lançamento de uma nova campanha da ONU chamada HeForShe, que visa estimular o fim da desigualdade entre gêneros, que mulheres e garotas sofrem no mundo todo.
Em muitos momentos ela foi ovacionada e aplaudida em pé e em sua voz podemos sentir a emoção e o nervoso de um discurso de quase 12 minutos para líderes do mundo inteiro.
Watson se declarou feminista e falou sobre a visão equivocada que as pessoas têm do feminismo. “Minhas pesquisas recentes mostram que feminismo se tornou uma palavra impopular. Aparentemente, estou entre as mulheres cujas expressões ou ações são vistas como agressivas, fortes, isoladas, anti-homem e pouco atraente. Por que esta é uma palavra tão desconfortável? Penso que é certo uma mulher ganhar o mesmo que um homem. Acho certo que eu possa tomar decisões sobre o meu próprio corpo. Acho certo que mulheres possam me representar politicamente nas decisões do meu país. Acho certo que, socialmente, eu receba o mesmo respeito que os homens recebem. Mas infelizmente posso dizer que não há um país no mundo em que todas as mulheres tenham esses direitos.”
A ideia da campanha é abolir a mentalidade “nós contra eles” que tem desgastado o feminismo atual. “Quanto mais eu falo sobre feminismo, mais me dou conta de que lutar pelos direitos da mulher virou sinônimo de ‘manhating’.” Seu discurso é de fato inclusivo e integra os homens, chamando-os para aderir ao movimento.
Emma também incluiu dados que mostram como a falta de igualdade afeta as mulheres de maneiras diferentes. “Se não fizermos nada hoje, passarão 75 anos ou talvez 100 para que uma mulher possa esperar receber o mesmo salário que um homem pelo mesmo trabalho. Mais de 15 milhões de meninas serão forçadas a se casar nos próximos 16 anos. Se os dados atuais se mantiverem, só em 2086 as mulheres das áreas rurais da África poderão frequentar a escola secundária.”
No final, a mensagem que fica é que a campanha HeForShe é mais do que sobre a igualdade, mas também sobre a liberdade.
Leia o discurso de Emma Watson na íntegra:
Your Excellences, UN Secretary-General, President of the General Assembly, Executive Director of UN Women and distinguished guests it is an honour for me to be here today.
Today we are launching a campaign called ‘HeForShe’. I am reaching out to you because I need your help. We want to end gender inequality – and to do that we need everyone to participate. This is the first campaign of its kind at the UN: we want to try and galvanize as many men and boys as possible to be advocates for change. And we don’t just want to TALK about it, but make sure it is tangible.
It was appointed as a Goodwill ambassador for UN women 6 months ago, and the more I have talked to about feminism the more I’ve realized that fighting for women’s rights has too often become synonymous with manhating.
If there is one thing I know for certain, it is that this has to stop. For the record – Feminism by definition is: “The belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities. It is the theory of the political, economic and social equality of the sexes”.
I started questioning gender-based assumptions a long time ago. When at 8 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 at 14 I started to be sexualized by certain elements of the press. When at 15 my girlfriends started dropping out of their beloved sports teams because they didn’t want to appear ‘muscly’. When at 18 my male friends were unable to express their feelings. I decided I was a feminist and this seemed uncomplicated to me. But my recent research has shown me that feminism has become an unpopular word. Women are choosing not to identify as feminist. Apparently I am among the ranks of women whose expressions are seen as too strong, too aggressive, isolating, anti-men and, unattractive. Why is the word become such an uncomfortable one?
I am from Britain and think it is right that as a woman I am paid the same as my male counterparts. I think it is right that I should be able to make decisions about my own body. I think it is right that women be involved on my behalf in the policies and decision making that affect my life. I think it is right that socially I am afforded the same respect as men. But sadly I can say that there is no one country in the world where all women can expect to receive these rights. No country in the world can yet say they have achieved gender equality.
These rights I consider to be human rights but I am one of the lucky ones. My life is a sheer privilege because my parents didn’t love me less because I was born a daughter. My school did not limit me because I was a girl. My mentors didn’t assume I would go less far because I might give birth to a child one day. These influencers were the gender equality ambassadors that made who I am today. They may not know it, but they are the inadvertent feminists who are changing the world today. We need more of those. And if you STILL hate the word – it is not the word that is important but the idea and the ambition behind it. Because not all women have been afforded the same rights that I have. In fact, statistically, very few have been.
In 1997, Hilary Clinton made a famous speech in Beijing about women’s rights. Sadly many of the things she wanted to change are still a reality today. But what stood out for me the most was that less than 30 percent of her audience was male. How can we affect change in the world when only half of it is invited or feel welcome to participate in the conversation?
Men – I would like to take this opportunity to extend your formal invitation. Gender Equality is your issue too.
Because to date, I’ve seen my father’s role as a parent being valued less by society despite my needing his presence as a child as much as my mother’s. I’ve seen a young man suffering from mental illness unable to ask for help for fear it would make him less of a man – 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.
We don’t often talk about men being imprisoned by gender stereotypes but I can see that they are and that when they are free, things will change for women as a natural consequence. If men don’t have to be aggressive in order to be accepted women won’t feel compelled to be submissive. If men don’t have to control, women won’t have to be controlled. Both men and women should feel free to be sensitive. Both men and women should feel free to be strong…. It is time that we all perceive gender on a spectrum instead two opposing sets of ideals. If we stop defining each other by what we are not and start defining ourselves by what we just are – we can all be freer and this is what HeForShe is about. It’s about freedom.
I want men to take up this mantle. 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.
You might be thinking who is this Harry Potter girl? And what is she speaking at the UN. It’s a good question and I’ve been asking myself the same thing. I don’t know if I’m the right person to be speaking. All I know is that I care about this problem. And I want to make it better. And having seen what I’ve seen – and given the chance – I feel it is my responsibility to say something. 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. If you have similar doubts when opportunities are presented to you I hope those words might be helpful.
Because the reality is that if we do nothing it will take 75 years, or for me to be nearly a hundred before women can expect to be paid the same as men for the same work. 15.5 million girls will be married in the next 16 years as children. And at current rates it won’t be until 2086 before all rural African girls will be able to receive a secondary education.
If you believe in equality, you might be one of those inadvertent feminists I spoke of earlier. And for this I applaud you. We are struggling for a uniting word but the good news is we have a uniting movement. It is called HeForShe.
I am inviting you to step forward, to be seen to speak up; to be the ‘he for she’ – and to ask yourself if not me, who, if not, now when.
Thank you.