By Andrea Guachalla
“[My] journey really started when I went to University in the [United] States. […]
– Emma Watson
To actually sit in another country and hear your history told differently
to how you have been taught it at home […] was an awakening.”
And it was truly an awakening. An awakening to a woke reality.
Emma Watson, widely known as the sweet girl who was casted for a role on the saga of Harry Potter in 2001, and won the part to play the now-iconic Hermione Granger, grew to be one of the most iconic feminists of our century, and is widely recognized for her work in the campaign HeforShe that aims to end gender inequality around the world.
As part of this campaign, which started by her being hired by the United Nations as a Goodwill Ambassador, she was taken to international conferences around the world to talk about gender equality, feminism, social justice, white privilege, white feminism, intersectionality, and other related affairs. Consequentially, she became one of the most admired women of the world according to global surveys done by YouGov and is now a renowned outspoken feminist, transgender supporter, social justice advocate, and environmentalist.
Who would have imagined that the sweet girl that you see on screen, practicing spells, and showing off her intelligence in the installations of the fictitious Hogwarts, would grow to be a woman willing to leave her career as an actor (she announced she would retire from acting in 2021) to advocate for feminism, transgenderism, and every ideology that responds to leftism, cultural marxism, and critical theory as a whole? Who would have imagined that Emma would be now advocating for letting transgender women (biologically men) invade female spaces, for women’s “right” to kill their own unborn babies, for six-year-old children to receive treatment to change their gender, and for men and women to reject their design calling it “gender equality”, therefore calling men to be more like women, and women to be more like men? Emma’s illogical Utopia: A world with no genders.
Isn’t this the same girl who was raised in a somewhat conservative family in Oxfordshire, England, and who attended Headington School, an evangelical Christian institution for girls, most of her life? Isn’t this the same girl whose upbringing was filled with conservative and even Christian views on what family, sexuality, and justice are?
As hard to believe as it is, it is true. It is the same girl.
And it only took to attend a left-leaning university in the United States to overturn all her principles and conservative grounds. But not any university. It had to be Brown University, the 7th oldest university of that country, one of the most prominent, and the first of all American universities that decided to change their curricula and statutes in order to stand for feminism, critical race theory, and gender ideology in 2003, followed by many other higher education institutions. Even the bachelor program Emma Watson did in BU, in English Literature, is filled with all these ideologies and openly acknowledges that the worldview it imparts to its students comes from left-leaning views, and it aims to shape the “critical” thinking of its student body towards Marxist views on politics, literature, history, sociology, and art.
Does this smell like brain-washing to anyone? It does to me.
Now, one would expect that all the people who have been through such a prestigious university (who are generally left-leaning after finishing their studies there) would be qualified to offer scientific, sociological, statistical insight to the issues they so passionately address through their work, in the case of Emma in the work she does on “gender equality” in the UN, but one would be wrong to expect that. The truth is: they are not qualified for that. Why? Because defending what they stand for is rarely based on facts, and more often – if not always – based on feelings.
Now, as an ex-feminist who used to admire Emma Watson for her feminist activism years back, I must acknowledge I was rather disappointed when I listened to her speeches, interviews, and Q&A sessions again after years, where she repeats again and again that women suffer discrimination and violence disproportionately, that they cannot access leadership positions, and that their academic and professional potential is held back, while giving no real statistics or numbers of any country whatsoever. Her rhetoric is all about blaming the system for being chauvinist and not offering women the same opportunities as it does to men, while also acknowledging that she has never suffered any sort of “gender-based” discrimination besides being called “bossy” for being a perfectionist girl when she was 8 years old. She claims women are paid less than men for the same jobs, and that women are at an economical disadvantage while also being a recognized actress, model, and activist, whose earnings go as high as 15 million US dollars per year according to Forbes, and who acknowledges she has never been paid less than any actor in her acting career.
Isn’t this the same woman who has a degree in English literature from one of the most prestigious and praised universities of the United States?
The issue goes further when we realize that we are not talking about a random girl who suddenly decided she would spend her life on feminist/transgender-supportive activism, but about THE Emma Watson who is praised by the UN, by the World Economic Forum, and Hollywood, and who is responsible for having thousands and thousands of people identifying as feminists after listening to her speech launching the campaign of HeForShe in 2014, among these included Hollywood stars (who tend to be left-leaning anyway), part of the British Royalty, and even presidents/presidential candidates – such as Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton – who actually joined the HeForShe campaign.
“The Emma Watson Effect,” that’s how it was called.
It sounds great, it sounds like she’s achieving real change. But what kind of change can come from a movement that has no factual roots? Furthermore, what kind of change can come from a movement led by a woman who can barely cite any research, or statistical facts about “gender inequality” while aiming to offer “solutions” to it? Does this sound rough and biased? It is not. It is a legitimate criticism when you realize that Emma NEVER ever accepts to attend any debates or Q&A sessions where her “expertise” on gender equality could be challenged, even if the organizers are left-leaning as she is. The only time she attended a Q&A organized by left-leaning BBC radio on International Women’s Day, and had a feminist male interviewer, Greg James, she stumbled over questions, made untrue claims about the consequences of gender inequality that she could not elaborate on, she openly acknowledged she has never experienced gender-based discrimination, and NEVER ever offers any meaningful statistical facts to support her claims on gender Pay-Gap affecting women, women having no access to leadership positions, women being discriminated and harassed in the workplace, and being negatively affected by maternity, stereotypes on womanhood, and masculinity. The only real numbers and real help she offers is that directed to girls being forced into marriages, and being sexually abused in some countries in Africa, though the main focus of the movement and Emma’s narrative is gender inequality in the western world.
All in all, blank statements and perceived disparities with no multifactorial statistical analysis are offered as the basis for such a large movement as HeForShe. And that’s why we will never see Emma Watson debating on gender equality with someone like Jordan Peterson, professor of the University of Toronto, psychologist, researcher, and expert on hypotheses such as the “gender pay gap”, and issues related to feminism and the negative impact it has on both men, women, and society itself. It is not convenient for feminists to have debates with people who can question their stands critically, logically, and legitimately because feminism, in large, is not about facts, but about feelings. And feelings, we must know, are deceiving, and can be self-serving.
All we are left to ask now is: Why?
Why, then, are so many men and women listening to a young lady who can barely answer questions when asked about gender inequality, while working in the UN as an “expert” on the issue? Is it that a pretty face like hers would help the UN advance their own ideological agenda easier and faster? Most likely. But a better response to the question comes in her own words, her campaign had such a response and success because:
And it’s fertile because in this postmodern world there is no absolute truth for those who don’t believe in God, therefore, it is easy to follow anyone who seems to be telling something worth fighting for, or worth believing in. And if it’s fertile among Christians – which is even more scandalous and sad – it’s because we are not rooted in God’s word, and His definition of what womanhood, motherhood, masculinity, family, justice, and relationships are. The ground is fertile because people need to follow someone who seems to know what he/she is doing, which proves we live in a fallen world that seeks idols, and refuses to believe in Biblical truths.
If I can do anything with this article, let it be to humbly call you, the reader, to not fall for the “Emma Watson Effect” passively without fact-checking or analyzing the narrative she offers. Allow me to call you, men and women who identify as feminists, to reflect on the consequences feminism have had on society – men hating to be men, and women hating to be women -, the life of the unborn – millions of babies being killed in the womb of their mothers every year-, and let me encourage you to seek factual truths. Allow me, brother and sister in Christ, to encourage you to be rooted in God’s Word, the only source of absolute truth, and the only way we can know what truly glorifies God, and what does not.
What common ground do we have as Christians with the feminist movement, and all other ideologies related to it and supported by it? None. Whilst feminists like Emma Watson present identity as something defined by feelings, not by biology, God says in His word He designed men and women in His likeness and each for a specific purpose. Whilst the campaign of HeforShe claims the main end goal of women is to be as powerful as men in the workplace, and implicitly diminishes the role of the women in the family and the home, God says it is a high call and a privilege to seek God’s wisdom as a woman, a mother and a wife, and to be at the service of the community. Whilst the feminist movement presents the fight for ending the life of unborn babies as a step forward towards gender equality, God calls man to protect the lives of the innocent.
We do not need to be awakened by people like Emma to a woke reality based on feelings and half-truths, but not on facts. We need not be awakened to a woke reality where morality is relative, and wrong-doing is praised. We need not be part of a movement that presents Biblical truths concerning the nuclear family, womanhood, manhood, justice, and sexuality as retrograde, racist, chauvinist, and homophobic while paying no attention to the negative effects their ideologies have on society. We need not be influenced by pretty faces who stand for feminism that tells us we can create our own truth, our own identity, and our own justice. Let us not be deceived by the false discourse of tolerance and love, that attacks what God says about the family, identity, and true justice.
We know who we are as Christians: we are Children of God. That is an objective, unchangeable truth according to the Bible. We know as Christians that we are called to be fair-minded and to not make a distinction between people focusing on whether they are men, or women, Jew or gentile, rich or poor. The reality we live in is that of having been saved by Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who came to earth to die for our sins and was resurrected and glorified by the Father, and who reconciled us with Him. We live in a heavenly reality where we are forgiven, therefore we can forgive when we are wronged, we are loved, therefore we can love – even our enemies-, we were saved by pure grace, therefore we can be grateful for all that we are given and the design God has given us as men and women distinctively. We do not, by the grace of God, live in a woke reality where amendments are demanded, vengeance is sought, innocents are hurt, and generations are confused.
We have a glorious savior. Let us live, as Christians, up to THAT heavenly reality.
References:
- British Vogue. 2020. Emma Watson Talks Turning 30, Working With Meryl Streep, And Being Happily Single. Vogue.
- Brown University. 2021. Code of Student Conduct. Brown.edu.
- Brown University. 2021. Course Announcement Bulletin 2020-21. brown.edu.
- Brown University. 2021. English Department. brown.edu.
- Brown University. 2021. Principles of the Brown University Community. brown.edu.
- HeForShe. 2015. Emma Watson Speech for HeForShe IMPACT 10x10x10 Program at World Economic Forum 2015. World Economic Forum.
- HeForShe. 2015. HeForShe Conversation with Emma Watson on International Women’s Day 2015. BBC Radio.
- HeForShe. 2016. Emma Watson speech for HeForShe Second Year Anniversary. Totally Emma Watson.
- HeForShe Webpage. 2021. UNITED NATIONS GLOBAL SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT FOR GENDER EQUALITY. Campaign HeForShe.
- Totally Emma Watson. 2016. Emma Watson Introduces the new HeForShe. Campaign HeForShe.
- United Nations. 2014. Emma Watson en la campaña de HeForShe 2014. Campaign HeforShe.
- Wikipedia, free encyclopedia. 2021. Brown University.
- Wikipedia, free encyclopedia. 2021. Emma Watson.
- Wikipedia, free encyclopedia. 2021. Headington School.
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