You might be wondering what Harry Potter has to do with feminism. Everything, it seems. Emma Watson, the British actress who played Hermione in the films, asked herself the very same thing when she was appointed UN Women Goodwill Ambassador.
After you hear her recent speech as part of the HeForShe campaign, there will be no doubt in your mind that this is part that she was born to play. Watson recounted some of her own experiences of being considered "bossy" as a child, to being sexualized as a tween, but the stand-out moment, ironically, hinged on what she had to say about men.
If feminism has become a bad word, then we need to reclaim and renovate it so that everyone knows feminism is about equal rights for both sexes. It's not about man-hating, nor is it about women being perceived as aggressive and unattractive just because they assert themselves.
Feminism is as much about supporting men's rights—as equal parents, as emotional beings in their own right—as it is about supporting and upholding those of women. Watson mentions a disturbing stat about suicide in the UK that makes clear that men are just as "imprisoned by gender stereotypes" as women.
This dad knows a thing or two about feminism. High fives to him.
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