Strap yourselves in, I'm going on a feminist rant.
Apparently, it didn't cross the minds of some people that a feminist might be someone with breasts. This above photo sparked outrage, some even going so far as to suggest that it was somehow anti-feminist to pose as she is.
What.
The.
Fuck?
I don't think you understand what feminism is, people. Feminism is about equal rights. It's about championing the idea that women are also people, and should be treated as such. More to the point, we're WHOLE people, with more than one dimension just like, wait for it, men.
It is entirely possible to be an intelligent woman championing women's causes and pose without a bra in a very artful photo shoot... or any kind of photo shoot, actually. Being without a bra, topless, or completely naked does not negate the hard work a woman has done to champion women's causes. It doesn't make her less intelligent.
Woman are WHOLE people. Intelligent, funny, sexual (I mean... I assume #AsexualJoke). WHOLE PEOPLE. With many facets. We should be allowed to be whole. More to the point, posing topless shouldn't be seen as some massively controversial thing.
Have you never stopped to consider why men can pose topless on any old magazine cover and still be taken seriously, but women, apparently, can't? Have you ever stopped to consider that your puritan pearl-clutching, this ridiculous need to police what women wear and how they behave, is part of the fucking problem?
Why is it that women must police their own bodies so fucking much to be "taken seriously" and men don't? That is precisely the king of bullshit feminism is trying to combat. Emma Watson posing as she was a feminist statement.
She owns a body, and she decided what to do with it. In no way did that impact the work she's done for equality. And Emma is a beautiful young woman. Why wouldn't she show that off? Christ. If I looked like her, you'd never see me with clothes on!
Now, you don't have to like it if you just don't like it. That's on you. But you don't get to decide that owning a body with breasts means you can't be taken seriously if you show any part of the pectoral region at all. You're not a better feminist because you cover up and conform to current societal norms about gendered propriety. You're not a better woman, either.
So, piss off with your faux concern about women being taken seriously. I don't believe you. Because it's clear to me you certainly don't see us as equals.
Oh, and for the record, one of the most enduring images of feminism happens to be bra burning. So you go on with your bad self, Ms. Watson. You are still an inspiration to this feminist.
Now I'm off to continue marking.
Ciao.