Wow… just wow. I’m speechless. I fear that sometimes Emma’s mouth might get ahead of her brain. I hope that she went home, realized what she said and regretted it. Feminism is NOT about throwing the boys under the bus. Hermione was brilliant, yes. But she was also flawed. She had NO clue what they were doing on that hunt. When Ron left she literally crumbled into herself (yes not entirely her fault – blame the locket) when he returned they both let Ron take the lead. Hermione has the plan? Hermione is in control? You mean the Hermione who panicked and forgot she was a witch? The Hermione petrified in the hospital wing? The Hermione who tried to take so many classes she made herself sick? That Hermione? They are all brilliant and flawed. That’s why we love them.
Yes she’s wonderfully loyal but she’s far from the glue… the boys are quite happy together when she’s preoccupied with classes and her pride (she could have just apologized to Ron about her cat.. but no.) Oh Emma… this quote makes me sad and I very much hope that it came from a genuine place of wanting to empower young girls and you simply forgot to think things through before you spoke.
Agree with everything you said. I love her, but I read that interview and went “nope, you got that wrong, honey”. I also read somewhere else, I think, but also recently, that she said something like… Hermione is kind and compassionate and puts up with everything all the time, and… that’s not entirely true either??
Of course, having played the movies and their particular version of Hermione is influencing Emma’s comments and I don’t think we can fault her too much when that is the material she was given to portray, but book!Hermione is so much more and so much more real than her version… and I wish she was telling people it’s okay to be book!Hermione.
If you had told my eleven year old self that I would end up disliking Emma Watson, I would have bursted into tears. I had no idea she was spewing this nonsense while I was too busy worshiping the ground she walked on.
@ronandhappiness I know the feeling. I’ve lost so much respect for Emma Watson over the past few years.
This is…kind of pathetic if you think about it. She put herself in this role of feminist leader with the media, right? But has to make up stuff and take it out of context to make people listen. It’s a shame.
Yeah. Especially considering that a lot of her feminism isn’t even that ground-breaking. Yes, it’s great that she’s making it more ‘palatable’ for popular culture, but I don’t understand why she’s considered such an authority on things, since most of her feminism has been commonplace in the movement since the 1970s; they’re hardly new ideas. I’ve also heard that she’s been criticised by intersectional feminists over her feminism being supposedly ‘white feminism’, which ignores the issues relating to women of colour, trans women, women in poverty, disabled women, and other minorities. Although I’m hardly in any position to pass comment, considering I’m a white caucasian male.
A lot of the things Watson has said in the past (especially about Hermione and Ron) seem to be based around the idea that a female character can only shine if male characters are ‘de-powered’. Which is bizarre, considering that book!Hermione was amazing without Ron having his own merits taken away.
I mean, I’m no feminist scholar (although I do consider myself a feminist), but it seems that Hermione is far stronger as a role model if she has flaws and makes mistakes. Telling young girls (and, to a lesser extent, boys) that women have to be perfect at everything, is not healthy. Teaching young girls and boys that women can make mistakes and still be amazing seems far better to me.
It’s just sad, really. It shows that not only has Emma Watson swallowed the Steve Kloves’ idea of “Hermione has virtually no flaws, and Ron is an incompetent ogre” hook-line-and-sinker, but she also seems to have lost sight of what made Hermione such a great inspiration to young women (and men) in the first place; she was flawed but was still brilliant because those flaws did not define her. She was a human being with her own set of personality flaws, but she was more than just those flaws.
I used to respect Emma Watson so much. Now I just wonder why everyone makes such a big deal over her. Which is a shame, considering that I’m sure she’s a lovely person IRL.
Headcanonsandmore 