Powerful Stuff. These rights I consider to be human rights but I am 1 of lucky ones. My life is a sheer privilege because my parents didnt love me less because I was born a daughter. My school did not limit me because I was a girl. My mentors didnt assume that I would go less far because I might give birth to a child 1 day. These influences were the gender inequality ambassadors that made me who I am today. They may not know it, but they are the inadvertent feminists who are changing the world today. We need more of those and if you still hate the word, it is not the word that is important, its the idea and the ambition behind it because not all women have received the same rights that I have. In fact, statistically, very few have been. In 1997, Hillary Clinton made a famous speech in Beijing about womens rights Sadly, many of the things that she wanted to change are still true today, but what stood out for me the most was that less than 30% of the audience were male. How can we effect change in the world when only half of it is invited or feel welcomed to participate in the conversation. Men, I would like to take this opportunity to extend your formal invitation. Gender equality is your issue too. Because to date Ive seen my fathers role as a parent being valued less by society despite my needing his presence as a child as much as my mothers. Ive seen young men suffering from mental illness unable to ask for help for fear it would make them less of a men or less of a man. In fact, in the UK, suicide is the biggest killer of men between 20 - 49, eclipsing road accidents, cancer and coronary heart disease. Ive seen men made fragile and insecure by a distorted sense of what constitutes male success. Men dont have the benefits of equality either. We dont often talk about men being imprisoned by gender stereotypes but I can see that they are and that when they are free, things will change for women as a natural consequence If men dont have to be aggressive in order to be accepted, women wont feel compelled to be submissive. If men dont have to control, women wont have to be controlled. Both men and women should feel free to be sensitive. Both men and women should feel free to be strong. It is time that we all perceive gender on a spectrum instead of 2 sets of opposing ideals. If we stop defining each other by what we are not and start defining ourselves by who we are, we can all be freer and this is what HeForShe is about. Its about freedom. I want me to take up this mantel so that there their daughters, sisters and mothers can be free from prejudice but also so that there sons have permission to be vulnerable and human too, reclaim those parts of themselves they abandoned and in doing so be a more true and complete version of themselves. upworthy/her-voice-might-tremble-but-emma-watsons-message-is-strong-and-clear?g=2&c=ufb1
Posted on: Wed, 24 Sep 2014 03:31:07 +0000
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