Post by 3zoev on Oct 23, 2014 2:00:43 GMT
The video above is about 14 minutes long, but absolutely worth watching.
This speech is one of the most eloquent, and well executed I have ever listened to. Being a girl who has experienced many of the things she speaks about because of my gender, it spoke to me directly, but beyond that, Emma Watson is known firstly for being an actress. I'm a drama major with a huge interest in liberal arts and human rights, so to see someone who has had a career in film make such a big impact in a different field, let alone one I am immensely interested in is inspiring.
Lack of gender equality is a something that has been an issue for ever...and I don't mean that colloquially, I mean literally ever since human societies have existed. The idea that only now is the first campaign of the kind being launched at the UN says enough. Women face a tremendous double standard in many aspects of their daily lives all across the world. There are places where women are afraid of being murdered by their husbands or other males for so much as driving a car or being seen in public, unaccompanied. There are also places where people would rather suffocate their new-born baby girl than raise a daughter. These are only a few examples of situations of this kind that need to be changed. This kind of injustice is embedded so deeply in world cultures that many aren't even aware of its existence and how detrimental it is to girls and women globally.
This isn't to say that great changes haven't been made and that we’ve taken great steps towards equality in the past several decades. I have many more rights that generations of women before me have had, and for that I am grateful, but there is still a long way to go.
Emma Watson explains this all in her speech (and more), and I hope it makes an impact, starting an even greater movement towards equality.