Feminism has hit the press in a big way recently. More and more celebrities are speaking in support of Feminism and trying to make a once ‘uncool’ idea, ‘cool’. Most recently, Emma Watson, famous for constantly outsmarting the males while playing Hermione Granger, spoke expressing her support for the UN’s HeForShe campaign, inviting men to join the feminist movement and encouraging them that this is not just an argument for women, but an argument for all members of the population.
Her speech went viral; she did what many have tried and failed to do and managed to attract the attention of a wide range of people.
But feminism is more than just celebrities voicing their unoriginal views on an age-old discussion. Don’t get me wrong, Watson was great; never has feminism formed such an integral part of discussion within the news, social media and conversations as it did after her speech came out.
But Watson’s views are not new, and more importantly, they don’t focus on the bigger picture. While celebrity influence will always be necessary and well received, it needs to be focused on things that can actually make a difference.
We need to be focusing on larger, more harmful issues, issues such as sexual assault. But these issues are not something that one celebrity can change. One celebrity can’t stand up in front of the UN, say her thing and expect the whole world to follow suit. And this is why feminism is about more than just a celebrity status.
Society itself needs intrinsically changing if we are going to actively prevent sexual assault in the future. Part of this lies in the way we address sexual assault, and the way we discuss it in everyday lives.
Firstly, it needs to stop being a taboo subject, needs to stop being something that people are not only afraid to talk about, but afraid to report. In 2012, Keir Starmer, the Director of Public Prosecutions, declared that a mere 10% of rape cases are reported. The only way to do this is through the absolute termination of victim blaming.
Without even realizing we are doing it, we victim blame almost all sexual assault cases. ‘She got raped’ is the first thing we say. ‘She got groped’, ‘she got assaulted.’
But she didn’t do anything. She was a victim and so our language is intrinsically victim blaming. Sexual assault is still something that happens to the victim, rather than the other way around. Women are taught not to walk home on their own late at night, to call a friend when they’re in a cab, to make sure someone knows where they are, always.
But why do we have to take these precautions? Why isn’t the focus on stopping sexual assault about teaching young men what is wrong and right, that hassling a girl in the street isn’t complimenting her, but scaring her, that grabbing a girl’s bum doesn’t make you a ‘lad’, it makes you an assaulter.
Sexual assault issues cannot begin to be tackled until we start from the bottom. And I’m not saying that all men think these actions are okay. I am however saying that this ‘lad culture’, especially surrounding us at universities, is what is putting us at risk. If we don’t call a friend to say we’re walking home, it is not our fault if someone assaults us. We shouldn’t feel scared to do something men do without a second thought all the time.
So why is it that people are only interested in things like this when celebrities get involved?
It’s time we combined celebrities such as Emma Watson, with change that actually urgently needs to happen; whilst Watson’s encouragement for men to join the feminist movement is an unsurprising call for action, if she had instead chosen to support sexual assault prevention, or any of the other problems we have in the world, then maybe her participation would have more of an effect on the actual equality of women.
Photo credits to thisisnotanexcuse.org.uk