March 6, 2017

"Feminism, feminism … gender wage gap … why oh why am I not taken seriously … feminism … oh, and here are my tits!"

Said Emma Watson, as imagined by some tweeter the Washington Post deemed worthy of quoting. The tweeter was reacting to a photograph of Watson wearing some clothing that bared not her breasts but her central chestal area and midriff. At the link, other anti-Watson tweets are quoted. Also, Watson's response, which is so utterly banal you should be able to guess the first 6 words verbatim:
"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. Most people are confused. No, I’m just always just quietly stunned."
Parts of that are not banal. I like "Feminism is not a stick with which to beat other women with." And the banal part is actually good. It's just so good we shouldn't have to keep saying it. I blame the haters for the banality.

As for the business about how confusing it all is. Here's where Emma and other members of The Confused could begin some productive thinking. But maybe if she worked past the confusion — and dared to talk about it — she'd find herself holding a stick to beat other women with. And that's why people stay confused.

By choice.

98 comments:

Bay Area Guy said...

I wish more feminists looked like Emma Watson....

Todd said...

I wish more feminists used their brains instead of their feelz...

Curious George said...

Nice tits.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

Feminism is a stick to beat men with. Duh.

Is "chestal" a word? It sounds like something we would have made up in middle school.

rehajm said...

Feminism is a stick with which to beat other women with.

mockturtle said...

Who in the hell is Emma Watson, anyway?

Jupiter said...

"... a photograph of Watson wearing some clothing that bared not her breasts but her central chestal area and midriff."

"chestal"?

Emma Watson knows exactly what her tits have to do with it. Most females work that out pretty shortly after puberty, when they discover that males like to look at their chestal area. Emma Watson would probably like to think that she would make just as much money if she didn't have any tits, because she is such a good actress. But she knows better.

buwaya said...

Best to have enmity out in the open, differences hard edged and precisely defined, and the matter resolved in open, direct conflict, finishing one side or the other totally.
If one has to have enemies, have and be open and honorable enemies.
Secret "cold wars" and festering, concealed or semi-hidden enmity is confusing and degenerate.

rhhardin said...

I have Emma Watson in only one DVD, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, which I don't remember the plot of.

Also a couple Emily Watson DVDs, Punch-Drunk Love and The Luzhin Defence, but Wiki says they have different heights so are probably not the same person.

Tits are better mostly clothed. The effectiveness goes way down if you go topless.
And actresses don't select for high-rated tits anyway, but rather for high-rated concealed tits.

Most tit scenes have a strip club scene where professional tits serve the need and the romantic lead just wanders in, if she's involved at all.

So the mid chestal area is probably where the good looks peak out for Emily.

Feminism is about announcing needs to men, so has something to do with looking good, if you want it to work on them.

Even if it's a need for choice, attracting the male gaze is important. Then men will take you seriously, for a while anyway, until they get tired of you or you get tired of them.

rehajm said...

I really don’t know what my tits have to do with it

It's a Harry Potter thing. Hermione's tits are not canon.

Many of us are still smarting from full Tonks in Game of Thrones.

rhhardin said...

Emily Blunt is good.

Jupiter said...

"Emma Watson: “Feminism, feminism … gender wage gap … why oh why am I not taken seriously … feminism … oh, and here are my tits!"

Wait, isn't that slut-shaming?

Ann Althouse said...

"Chestal" is an allusion to Woody Allen, who used to say:

"I had once a pain in the chestal area. Now, I was sure it was heartburn, y'know, 'cause at that time I was married and my wife cooking with her nazi recipies, y'know, chicken Himmler. I didn't wanna pay twentyfive bucks to have it reaffirmed by some medic, that I had heartburn. But I was worried 'cause it was in the chestal area. Then it turns out my friend, Eggs Benedict, has a pain in his chestal area, in the same exact spot. I figured if I could get Eggs to go to the doctor, I could figure out what was wrong with me, at no charge, so I con Eggs. He goes. Turns out he's got heartburn. Cost him twentyfive dollars, and I feel great, 'cause I figured I beat the medic out of twentyfive big ones, y'know. Called up Eggs two days later - he died. I check into a hospital immediately, have a battery of test run and x-rays. Turns out I got heartburn. Cost me a hundred and ten dollars. Now I'm furious. I run to Eggs' mother, and I say: "Did he suffer much?" And she said: "No, it was quick. Car hit him and that was it.""

buwaya said...

She was good as a child actress in the first Harry Potter movie - the kids were all young then, and we went to all of them. She was not so good as an adolescent actress.

rhhardin said...

You need to attract males so there are some soothing voices in the feminist meeting room.

They're trying to pick up babes, but have nice voices, not shrill, and soothing authority.

Lyssa said...

I've frequently been amazed at how pretty EW grew up from her awkward early Harry Potter look. I don't understand how the Vanity Fair photographer made her look so unattractive.

gspencer said...

"Feminism is not a stick with which to beat other women with."

Unless of course those other women are Christian, pro-life, conservative, and similarity thinking people.

Gahrie said...

I like "Feminism is not a stick with which to beat other women with."

Of course not, it's a stick to beat men with.

n.n said...

Feminism has progressed as female chauvinism that is unfriendly to women, men, and our Posterity, too. There are other solutions.

Moral, natural, and personal imperatives. Go forth and reconcile.

rehajm said...

"chestal"?

It's a unique hybrid display of décolletage and underboob. 'Chestal' fits.

J2 said...

I'm absolutely disgusted that Emma Watson would allow herself to be photographed in what must be one of the ugliest god-awful outfits I ever laid eyes on.

I had to look up the designer: Burberry.

The bolero is especially bad like a summer camp project gone mental.

If you look at the ugly lace skirt at the waist you can barely see that the top is of tulle. So technically this is the illusion look.

When will T&L weigh in on this.

rhhardin said...

There's Emily Woof too. I have The Velvet Goldmine but it's in the stack of stuff not yet watched, some entries there being a couple of years old. The cover blurb never seems attractive at the current time, maybe later.

That's about it for the Em's.

eric said...

What the hell is wrong with her hair?

Ron Winkleheimer said...

Emma Watson knows exactly what her tits have to do with it. Most females work that out pretty shortly after puberty, when they discover that males like to look at their chestal area.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9BjjFts2F0

boycat said...

It's not so much "Here are my tits," as it is "Where are my tits?" Just sayin'.

J2 said...

Her hair is done to pick up on and amplify the scrolly architectural design of the fucking bolero.

Ron Winkleheimer said...

By the way, was there ever a time when vanity fair wasn't about the decadence?

Meade said...

They're just breasts.
Everyone has them.

J2 said...

You sound like Carrie. Some people refer to them as 'dirty pillows".

Bob Boyd said...

Chestal inequality has always been a wrench in the gears of feminism.

Meade said...

My eyes are down here.

Ron Winkleheimer said...

In any event, so far as I can determine, the term feminism has deteriorated into a shibboleth. Its used to signal what tribe you belong to.

Anonymous said...

I think it's fair to say that many feminists would be ok with a comfortable male around, like a Robert Siegenthaler at NPR, while the guys who fix the plumbing, wash the windows, and take out the trash would stay out of sight. These guys would also pay a fair amount of the taxes for the building and have to defend it, too.

The architects and engineers would be marriageable material, and in troubled times, would be expected to support their wives personally, and also pay taxes and have to defend the building if things really got hairy.

Some lesbians especially, many high achieving, analytical, well-educated and more well-born women like Althouse, independent minded women and a broader swathe of some men and women benefit, while a lot of people don't necessarily benefit.

These people are often called enemies or told not so politely to shut up.

We're creating a different looking society, and arguably much more European.

Sprezzatura said...

Is there an "Althouse Confusion" tag?

Utterly banal-->not banal
Not worthy of quoting-->but quoted/posted

Presumably productive thinking could have avoided this powerfully embarrassingly badly botched post.



OTOH, maybe this was just a quickie where Althouse needed to throw out some tits to keep the locals from noticing that she failed to put out stuff, cause of the Pac time zone.

OK.

Hunter said...

Having already seen this, I was glad the WaPo provided context to her seeming hypocrisy:

Many referenced a 2014 interview Watson gave, in which she discussed Beyoncé’s sexually charged music videos. Watson said:

"I felt her message felt very conflicted in the sense that on the one hand she is putting herself in a category of a feminist, you know this very strong woman and she has that beautiful speech in one of her songs but then the camera, it felt very male, such a male voyeuristic experience of her."


Ms. Watson seemed then to find herself holding the stick above another woman's head, but resisting the urge to bring it down, and instead relieving that urge (correctly per feminism) with a smack to the head of the male gender.

CStanley said...

It might be confusing to young women because they came in after the movie started.

The part they missed was that long before gender gap was a thing, there was chestal gap.

MacMacConnell said...

I always get small actresses confusing, so help me. Is Emma Watson the one that is Natalie Portman lite?

J2 said...

Yeah welcome back to thew Andrea Dworkin wing of feminism.

I'm also confused.

J2 said...

Winkleheimer. Shibolleth. I like it.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Feminism is a stick with which to beat men with.

fixed.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Emma Watson made more money is 5 seconds filming Harry Potter, than most people on planet earth make in a lifetime.

She's clearly a victim. Tits.

Etienne said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Bob Loblaw said...

I've frequently been amazed at how pretty EW grew up from her awkward early Harry Potter look. I don't understand how the Vanity Fair photographer made her look so unattractive.

Agreed. She's very pretty when she hasn't been made into an art project.

Bob Loblaw said...

I wonder if Watson is about to go full Judd. You never go full Judd.

jaydub said...

If I had to chose between one of my daughters being a whore or a feminist, I'm not sure which way I would go. At least whores provide a service to society.

Bruce Hayden said...

Who in the hell is Emma Watson, anyway?

Hermione Granger. I believe it was 8 Harry Potter movies before she graduated from Brown. Harry, Hermione, and Ron Weasley were the mostly inseparable trio throughout the series, making them essentially the main characters. In end, she married Ron, and Harry married Ron's younger sister. Hermione was a muggle, which meant that she didn't have any wizardly parents, while Harry and Ron had full wizard blood. This meant that she had to work harder than anyone else to prove herself, and was always the target of ire from their less enlightened foes, such as Draco Malfoy (you knew he had to be bad, maybe even evil, with a name like that).

bobby said...

But I thought that feminism was going to make a better world for the 98% of women who don't have Grade AAA Movie-Worthy chesticles, by changing the system that worships and lusts after such chesticles and thereby makes the 98% of women with normal, non-Movie-Worthy chesticles no longer feel belittled and unworthy and ugly?

How can a woman supposedly hold to a philosophy that says "stop judging me on the parts of me that excite male lust" and then appear in worldwide publications saying "look at my great chesticles!"?

THAT'S where the conflict comes into play. It's great that she's so wonderfully free and empowered and beautiful such that she can show her favors and cause us all to swoon, but it actively makes life harder for normal women who can never measure up, in an area totally devoid of personal merit. (Unless, of course, she paid to have them installed, which might change the equation.)

Rusty said...

Meade said...
"They're just breasts.
Everyone has them."

Yes they do.
But not everybody has Emma Watsons tits.
And I, for one. Would like to see them.

Bob Boyd said...

I remember reading about a sociology study that showed when two couples approach each other on a sidewalk, the men will look first at the other woman, then at the other guy. The women will also look at the other woman first, then at the other guy.

mezzrow said...

When you're a feminist as a form of performance art, those breasts become weapons.

Otherwise, they're just a nice set.

n.n said...

They're just breasts. Everyone has them.

Form and function. Mother Nature has ruled.

Fernandinande said...

mockturtle said...
Who in the hell is Emma Watson, anyway?


Dunno. Sounds familiar. Sherlock Holmes' sidekick's great-granddaughter? Does it matter?

"Feminism is not a stick with which to beat other women with."

"I'm a feminist so don't criticize me."

n.n said...

Feminism... Oh, and here are my tits

Fascinating. Please, proceed. Men are watching and humanitarian pornographers are profiting.

There is nothing like reducing women, men, and babies, too, to a colorful (e.g. [class] diversity) clump of cells in order to promote individual human dignity.

Ann Althouse said...

Meade, as he knows I know, is alluding to something in Captain Fantastic: "It's just a penis. Every man has one." Spoken while naked.

Bob Boyd said...

"It's just a penis. Every man has one."

Those were the days...

bobby said...

"It's just a penis. Every man has one."

Cis-ist.

damikesc said...

Apparently, feminists cannot show their tits. Feminism is more Puritanical than the Pilgrims.

Drago said...

Ann Althouse: "Meade, as he knows I know, is alluding to something in Captain Fantastic: "It's just a penis. Every man has one."

I'm afraid that sort of statement can get you kicked out of not-so-polite society today as it is blasphemy against secular leftist dogma.

Re-education can't be far behind.

Jupiter said...

Blogger bobby said...

"How can a woman supposedly hold to a philosophy that says "stop judging me on the parts of me that excite male lust" and then appear in worldwide publications saying "look at my great chesticles!"?"

Well, that's the problem, alright. As a public figure, she must kiss the ring of feminism by pretending that her physical appearance is irrelevant, or be hurled into outer darkness. But as a movie star, she must accentuate her physical attractions, or be relegated to supporting roles. Fortunately, the one ability that all women possess is the ability to have it both ways.

Earnest Prole said...

Here, let me help. Her breast is unmistakably present; what's missing is the nipple.

Todd said...

damikesc said...
Apparently, feminists cannot show their tits. Feminism is more Puritanical than the Pilgrims.

3/6/17, 11:35 AM


Sorry you got that wrong. Feminism is about women showing your their tits when and only when they wish to show them and you are required to look. Feminism is all about their agency, your's be damned.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

Women aren't objects to be objectified and women's bodies aren't property to be gawked at. If you voice a desire to gawk at a woman's body that's a reaffirmation of the patriarchy and vocal support for rape culture--horrible.
If women chose to display their bodies in order to use the desire of others to gawk at them for women's own purposes, well, that's empowering and should/must be celebrated--it's her choice and she's owning her sexuality and any criticism of that is slut-shaming.
That's what her tits have to do with it, of course, and absolutely no one is confused by any of it.

Maybe it's been too long, but don't most breasts have, what-do-ya-call-'em--nipples? Maybe celebrity breasts are different, I wouldn't know. Also this picture is a good example of how attractive women often look worst when trying to be sexy/provocative/fashion forward--Watson is a pretty gal but this particular picture isn't close to her best.

Anyway her new Disney movie of Beauty and the Beast is out and people talking about her is good for movie ticket sales and the movie itself has the first confirmed gay character in a Disney movie and that's so super controversial all by itself...but no, nothing cynical going on here, no sir. Uh, no ma'am.

Jupiter said...

'One popular British radio commentator, Julia Hartley-Brewer, tweeted a photograph of the Sun’s page 3, which reproduced the photo with the headline “Beauty & the breasts.”

One look at Hartley-Brewer's picture and you understand why she's in radio. And why she's a feminist. And why she's pissed off at Emma Watson.

Surely, the world would be a more comfortable place if everyone were beautiful, or no one. And yet we will insist that there is such a thing as beauty. many lack it altogether, and only a few have it in its entirety. What is the point of this nonsense? What was evolution thinking?

Earnest Prole said...

What's not to like?

Bob Boyd said...

"Feminism is about women showing your their tits when and only when they wish to show them and you are required to look."

Oh well. I can take it.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

One of the first phrases I learned in Latin was "(he) beat with a stick." I don't remember the spelling of the verb, but I think the phrase is verberum baculat.

Watson's got an excess "with" in there, but presumably it's spoken so she's ok.

Clearly Feminism, capital F, is a stick with which to beat someone...I guess we're just arguing over the correct target.

John Scott said...

Regarding feminism and sex: Man, I'm just glad I came of age in the 70s. Good times.

mockturtle said...

I see feminism as more 'shtick' than 'stick'. Certainly, if the goal is respect and advancement of women, they are falling seriously short.

Henry said...

The Beyhive never forgets.

hombre said...

Who is confused and by what? Isn't feminism in part about burning bras and showing tits.

I thought the tits part was someting we could all agree is good. Is that why the feminists are getting on her, agreement is bad (even if tits are good).

Oh my. Maybe I am confused, but not by this choice. I choose tits.

Virgil Hilts said...

Look at lists of best countries for women; ones on top all tend to have fairly laid back approaches or outright acceptance/embracing/love of female nudity. At other end, not so much.
The two on top of list - Denmark and Sweden (pre-influx!:
Denmark - Bathing/sunbathing in nude legal on beaches; Nudity and toplessness in other public outdoor places is generally also legal.
Sweden - toplessness is not illegal; allowed at public pools.
Bottom line - Respect for women correlates pretty strongly with letting women display their bodies if they want to and not condemning them for doing so.

buwaya said...

Had a look (I had to of course).
She is pretty enough but the clothes are ridiculous.
An utter failure in gilding the lily.

Why are women forever trying to gild the lily?
This is a mystery that persists through the eons.

William said...

I only know her from the Harry Potter movies. She was quite endearing and likable as Hermoine. That works against her in adult roles. I don't want to see her tits. I would feel creepy looking at her tits. She's a nice girl, and I wish every good thing for her. I don't want Hermoine to grow up to be a celebrity in revealing outfits. Her true vocation is saving the world from evil and not baring her flesh for fame and money.

William said...

I wond r if Woody Allen will offer her a role in his next movie. Seems like a natural progression.

jaed said...

gild the lily

Paint, darn it. Paint the lily. I'm surprised at you, buwaya.

Roughcoat said...

Why are women forever trying to gild the lily?

Because of same foolishness in the Balkans, I should think.

n.n said...

Spoken while naked

So, it is intended to reduce tension, maybe. There was a visible tension at the last Slut Walk as women judged each other. It's partly social, but mostly nature.

Birches said...

Here's a stick beating question for Hermione. Is Ivanka Trump a feminist?

Sam L. said...

" I like "Feminism is not a stick with which to beat other women with." " And yet they do.

Todd said...

William said...

I don't want to see her tits. I would feel creepy looking at her tits.

3/6/17, 1:33 PM


Know what you mean, it took me weeks to get over seeing Julia Anderew's tits in that movie S.O.B.

buwaya said...

" There was a visible tension at the last Slut Walk as women judged each other. "

This sort of situation does seem to call for Tom Wolfe.

Or better, Laslo.

buwaya said...

jaed,

After furious internet searches, I find that "gild the lily" was used by Chesterton.
So there, I can quote him, not the bard. My face can lose its rosy hue, painted by nature.

readering said...

Doesn't Melania require us to stop talking about women's breasts or else The Donald will tweet unflattering photos of our womenfolk?

Unknown said...

"Feminism is not a stick with which to beat other women with."*


*except when it is.

(oh, and Emma's got one too many with's in the sentence.)

Rusty said...

readering said...
"Doesn't Melania require us to stop talking about women's breasts or else The Donald will tweet unflattering photos of our womenfolk?"

Nothing is more lame than a leftist using politics to try and make a joke.

MayBee said...

Althouse is not going to mention the double-with?

n.n said...

Feminism is chauvinistic. Welcome to humanity. Women and men are equal and complementary.

That said, don't be deceived by the humanitarian pornographers. As with the Planners, and [class] diversitists, they only care about lucrative, colorful clumps of cells.

Joe said...

Emma Watson strikes me as a woman who is sincerely trying to navigate what the concept of feminism means, naively not understanding that Feminism [as a political movement] is just a blunt force instrument by an outspoken minority.

Bill said...

I'd be willing to indulge her nonsense if Planned Parenthood weren't part of the deal.

Steven said...

Feminism is not a stick with which to beat other women with.

I'm sorry, but the last 50 years of the history of feminism expressly contradict that statement.

n.n said...

Feminism is a double-edged scalpel. Wield your weapons carefully, so that you are not the next Choice.

Saint Croix said...

Feminism is about giving women choice.

What they got instead was a lot of disappearing dads and unhappy moms.

Saint Croix said...

Feminism is not about giving men choices.

But we feel like we have one anyway (now).

So Roe v. Wade inadvertently created deeper divisions between men and women

between fathers and mothers

that rhetoric, "it's my body, it's my choice,"

divorce rhetoric if I've ever heard it

feminism is a quiet disaster for so many women

with its attacks on men

and babies

no wonder so many women refuse to identify themselves as feminist

Saint Croix said...

God gives us a choice, too.

It's in Deuteronomy

"Today I am giving you a choice. You can choose life and success or death and disaster."

That's where the Choose Life bumper sticker comes from, I think.

mockturtle said...

Further on, in Deut.30:19 "I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live"

Birches said...

I just realized she looks like Gozar in Ghostbusters. Haha!

Achilles said...

Another actor/actress whose character is smarter than they are.

FIDO said...

Emma Watson realizes that Feminism, as displayed by the majority of their spokeswomyn, is a bad deal for men as well as grossly insulting. But she needs male votes and acquiescence to further her feminist goals.

The things that men appreciate most in women, value the most in women, seems to be the things that Feminists want to villainize men for valuing and wish to excise from what defines a woman. How does this help women again to be a version of 'men lite'?

So she is stuck trying to square a circle by going to banality: the least controversial aspects of an ideology which is so much more than 6 word quotes that 90% of men agree with. Quite a few women, herself included it seems, also see the inherent contradiction. She needs eyes on the screen. She needs to be valued for ephemerals as a woman and as an actress. Otherwise, her 'value' to men means less influence and less revenue.

Hence chestal revelations.

Feminism IS about choice. Women can choose to be hectoring scolds who seem intent on pushing laws and rhetoric which are blatantly anti-male, making enemies as a result OR they can embrace a lifestyle which offers value to men and influence over them.

So far, it seems that the majority of women, while liking the 'banal stuff' which has already been drafted into law, are essentially eschewing Feminism as a result.

Unsurprisingly.