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Emma Watson has come out fighting over the weekend, standing by her choice to appear in a revealing photoshoot for the cover of Vanity Fair.
The actress was responding to social media criticism that wearing a see-through top betrayed her feminist values. Here’s the image in question from the shoot by fashion photographer Tim Walker to promote Disney's new live-action adaptation of 'Beauty and the Beast'.
Talking to the BBC Watson said: ‘It just always reveals to me how many misconceptions and what a misunderstanding there is about what feminism is. Feminism is about giving women choice. Feminism is not a stick with which to beat other women with. It’s about freedom, it’s about liberation, it’s about equality.
'I really don’t know what my tits have to do with it. It’s very confusing.’
The Vanity Fair image has wrongly been described as topless, and some of the responses have been borderline misogynist (like this headline in the The Sun: ‘Beauty & the Breasts’). Watson’s critics included radio presenter Julia Hartley-Brewer, writing on Twitter: ‘She complains that women are sexualised and then sexualises herself in her own work. Hypocrisy.’
Shutting down her critics, Watson, who is a UN Goodwill Ambassador for Women and the force behind the HeForShe campaign to encourage men to advocate for feminism, described the shoot as ‘incredibly artistic’.
Emma Watson banishes Disney princess stereotypes… Read our review of 'Beauty and the Beast'