A couple weeks ago, the hashtag #HeforShe was trending on Twitter. After attending Brown University and receiving a bachelor’s degree in English literature, Emma Watson, actress in the famous Harry Potter series was appointed to be the United Nations goodwill ambassador for U.N. women.
Through the United Nations, Watson launched the HeforShe campaign on Sept. 20, 2014.
“Today we are launching a campaign called ‘HeForShe.’” Watson stated. “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 be involved.” She continued by talking about her personal experiences and emphasized the ambitions behind the idea of feminism.
Watson identified herself as a feminist during the speech and stating that “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.” Therefore, she also shed light on unfair treatment of males by saying: “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.”
She ended the speech with a remark that applied to everyone as individuals: “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?”
The campaign’s message is to empower females and promote gender equality. It is specifically reaching out to males. “We want to try and galvanize as many men and boys as possible to be advocates for gender equality.”
Her speech was very inspirational, and because she is a famous movie actress, people automatically listened. Many people don’t know global issues, but they may know who Emma Watson is and follow her on Twitter. Since she is an actress Watson seems to be slowly building a bridge between entertainment and reality for people.
It’s a little bit ironic, considering that she acted in one of the most fantasy- based movies and is moving towards the reality of equality. Even so, she positively brings the light to important topics other than entertainment and the fun side of life.
Her positive effect reached all different continents of the world. Many people started tweeting #HeforShe and supporting the cause, including Harry Styles, Logan Lerman and Chloe Grace Mortez, not to mention all of those fans that have been tweeting and contributing to the amazing movement that even resulted in Twitter’s headquarters painting the hashtag on their wall.