“Young girls are told you have to be the delicate princess. Hermione taught them that you can be the warrior.” Taking pride in the character that shaped the young women of today, Emma Watson is truly the 21st-century woman every girl should look up to. And I’m sure, to that statement, she would remark, “Every woman… everyone should be their own person.”
The newest Disney princess, who will bring to life Belle in upcoming movie Beauty and the Beast, has been a staunch activist for women’s rights ever since she left her diapers. Watson was eight years old when she took issue with being called “bossy” for merely being a perfectionist.
Emma Watson as Belle in Beauty and the Beast. (Courtesy: Walt Disney Studios)
She made a powerful statement by being chosen the UN Women Goodwill Ambassador. Aside from empowering women, she motivated men to promote gender equality through her HeForShe campaign. But, that’s way too political and serious. Emma Watson has furthered feminism and made it cool by introducing it in pop culture.
Emma Watson has been motivating young girls as Hermione ever since she was little.
Watson seems to grasp that preaching and marching with slogans along wouldn’t cut it. To get her message across, she innovated. Through her characters, Watson beamed power and grace, but also warmth and compassion, traits usually (and falsely) considered to be absent in feminists. Hermione became one of the most adored characters in fiction ever and she came quite close to what a 21st-century woman should look like.
Even for her latest avatar as Belle from Beauty and the Beast, she has tailored the character to a more befitting role-model than the older Disney princess. Her Belle won’t wear a corset to maintain her figure and won’t be just another damsel in distress. She is an inventor, is well-read and is much more competent. Watson has reshaped
