Emma Watson is a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador and one of her greatest challenges is working towards  gender equality, through the He For She campaign, which is a movement encouraging men and boys to join forces to help end inequality towards women.

Today (International Women’s Day) Emma entered in a live question and answer session on her Facebook account where she participated in a chat with reference to all issues surrounding inequality and feminism.

Here are a few of my favourite powerful and inspirational quotes from Emma Watson:

“Why are women not directing their own stories? The human race is a bird—and it needs both it’s wings to fly. And at the moment one of it’s wings is clipped.”

“I feel like young girls are told, I don’t know, that they have to be this kind of princess and fragile. It’s bullshit. I identify much more with being a warrior, a fighter. If I was going to be a princess I’d be a warrior princess definitely.”

“I think it starts young, I think it starts really young with girls and boys being told what they can be.”

“It is time that we all perceive gender on a spectrum, not as two opposing set of ideals.”

“It’s not about men saving women.. (He For She) is not a men’s club. It’s an equality club for both genders.”

“Becoming yourself is really hard and confusing, and it’s a process. I was completely the eager beaver in school, I was the girl in the front of the class who was the first person to put her hand up, and it’s often not cool to be the person that puts themselves out there, and I’ve often gotten teased mercilessly, but I found that ultimately if you truly pour your heart into what you believe in—even if it makes you vulnerable—amazing things can and will happen.”

Emma on feminism:

“Men think it’s a women’s word. But what it means is that you believe in equality, and if you stand for equality then you’re a feminist. Sorry to tell you. You’re a feminist. You’re a feminist. That’s it.”

“I think people associate (the term “feminism”) with hate, with man-hate. And that’s really negative. And I don’t think that’s what feminism is about at all. I think it’s actually something incredibly positive.”

The words Emma spoke after being threatened after her He For She speech, with a hoax that nude pictures being of her would be released (there never were any pictures):

“A lot of people who were close to me knew gender inequality was an issue, but didn’t particularly think it was that urgent. … Then when they saw the minute I stepped up and talked about women’s rights, I was immediately threatened… It was just a wake-up call that this is a real thing, that it is really happening, now. It’s funny because people think, ‘Oh she’s gonna be disheartened by this,’ but if anything, it made me so much more determined. I was just raging. It made me so angry, that I was like, ‘This, this is why I have to be doing this.’ “

“It’s not the word (feminism) that is important. It’s the idea and ambition behind it.”

And this one is my absolute favourite…

“Beauty is not long hair, skinny legs, tanned skin or perfect teeth. Believe me. Beauty is the face of who cried and now smiles, beauty is the scar on your knee since you fell when you were a kid, beauty is the circles when love doesn’t let you sleep, beauty is the expression on the face when the alarm rings in the morning, it’s the melted makeup when you have a shower, it’s the laughter when you make a joke you’re the only one who can understand, beauty is meeting his gaze and stopping understanding, beauty is your gaze when you see him, it’s when you cry for all your paranoias, beauty is the lines marked by time. Beauty is what we feel in the inside which also shows outside us. Beauty is the marks that life leaves on us, all the kicks and the caresses the memories leave us. Beauty is letting yourself live.”

Here is a video from a He For She speech made to the UN this past September.

Relephant: 

Feminist Goddess Offers Alternative 4 Letter Word for Men.

Author: Alex Sandra Myles 

Editor: Renee Picard 

Image: Screenshot