The Campaigner of the Year has cast a spell over the HeForShe campaign,which calls for a million men to sign up for gender equalityIt’s not often that UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon makes Harry Potter jokes, but after actor Emma Watson’s speech at the UN’s New York HQ last September, and he declared she had waved a magic wand over her audience. The description was surprisingly apt. Watson was appointed UN Women Goodwill Ambassador in July 2014 and became involved in the organisations HeForShe campaign – which calls for one billion men to declare their support for gender equality. Watson was visibly nervous as she spoke,but what she said approximately her own experience of feminism and the confusion and unhappiness that gender stereotypes can create for men and women struck a chord. Women related to her stories approximately being called bossy, approximately being sexualised at too early an age. Men listened when she talked approximately the impact of mental illness or them being unable to express their emotions. She obviously spoke for a lot of people: the speech has been watched more than 7m times on YouTube and 331220 men maintain now signed up for the HeforShe campaign.
Her campaign has also won Watson a position on Time’s 100 Most Influential People list for 2015 – in at 26Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com