Emma Watson, who recently displayed a 'Times Up' temporary tattoo on her arm at the Oscars, was the talk of the town among some of my feminist friends. And not just because the Times was missing an apostrophy. (By the way, both Times Up and Time's Up have been used to refer to the movement, so Emma isn't quite wrong here.)
More interesting was the question of why Emma chose to use a tattoo to express her support for the movement, when other celebrities at the event were content with using pins. This predictably brought up the question of if Ms Watson just wanted to stand out, to grab attention. One of my friends even accused Emma of doing this whole feminist thing for her own publicity, which of course predictably caused fans of Ms Watson among us to list all her feminist achievements to date.
It really seems strange that Emma Watson is such a controversial figure in the feminist world, again and again, without her even saying anything particularly controversial. (By the way, I still have something more to say later about her Vanity Fair photo from last year, now that the dust has settled on that matter.) But which feminist isn't a 'controversial feminist' in 2018? It looks like being seen as controversial is probably the price one has to pay for being a feminist icon in this day and age.
Anyway, I think that Emma was just displaying her individuality. And unlike what some may think, a feminism without individuality would defeat the whole point about feminism, and would be a feminism not worth having. At least according to this liberal feminist.
So, the bottom line: I remain a fan of Emma Watson. We may not always agree, but I appreciate her individuality. Emma is indeed something special.
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