British actress Emma Watson hit back at critics who said she betrayed her feminist ideals by posing for a revealing picture in Vanity Fair magazine where parts of her breasts were exposed.
Watson, the Harry Potter movie series co-star and pioneer of the HeForShe campaign to make men advocate for feminism, talked about the photo shoot for the magazine while promoting her latest film, the Disney live action Beauty and the Beast.
“It just always reveals to me how many misconceptions and what a misunderstanding there is about what feminism is,” she said in an interview with Reuters.
“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. I’m confused. Most people are confused. No, I’m just always just quietly stunned,” she said.
The magazine’s photo shoot by acclaimed fashion photographer Tim Walker showed Watson in an open, white crocheted bolero jacket with no bra or shirt underneath.
“We’d been doing so many crazy things on that shoot but it felt incredibly artistic and I’ve been so creatively involved and engaged with Tim and I’m so thrilled about how interesting and beautiful the photographs were,” she said.