Wingardium leviosa, haters! Emma Watson hit back at critics who claimed that the see-through top she wore in a new Vanity Fair photo shoot was hypocritical of her feminist views.
After the magazine revealed the spread earlier this week, several social media users and publications questioned the Beauty and the Beast star’s decision to pose in a sheer top with an avant-grade white bolero jacket over her shoulders.
“It just always reveals to me how many misconceptions and what a misunderstanding there is about what feminism is,” Watson, 26, told Reuters on Sunday, March 5. “Feminism is about giving women choice. Feminism is not a stick with which to beat other women with. It’s about freedom, it’s about liberation, it’s about equality. I really don’t know what my tits have to do with it. It’s very confusing.”
“I’m confused,” the Harry Potter actress continued. “Most people are confused. No, I’m just always just quietly stunned.”
Several news outlets published articles slamming Watson’s ensemble. The Sun printed a story titled “Beauty & the Breasts,” while The Hollywood Reporter‘s style website, Pret-a-Reporter, posted the headline “Is Actress and Feminist Emma Watson a Hypocrite for Going Topless in Vanity Fair?”
Critics weighed in on social media too. “Emma Watson: ‘Feminism, feminism… gender wage gap… why oh why am I not taken seriously… feminism… oh, and here are my tits!'” one radio host wrote on Twitter.
“We’d been doing so many crazy things on that shoot but it felt incredibly artistic and I’ve been so creatively involved and engaged with [photographer Tim Walker] and I’m so thrilled about how interesting and beautiful the photographs were,” Watson told Reuters.
