Emma Watson, best known for her role in the "Harry Potter" movie franchise, was one of the biggest names at a United Nations meeting over the weekend, where the actress took the opportunity to deliver an empowering speech on feminism and gender equality.
Watson, a U.N. Women goodwill ambassador, helped introduce the HeForShe campaign at the Saturday event in New York. The movement is designed to attract men to help crusade to end
violence against women, according to The Washington Post.
Feminism has too often become synonymous with "man-hating" when, in fact, it should be associated with a quest for equality, Watson said. In addition, men should want to come on board to champion equal rights for their daughters, sisters, and mothers.
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"For the record, feminism by definition is: 'The belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities. It is the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes,'"
Watson said, according to the U.N.
Men are often trapped by societal gender restraints that keep them not only from speaking out against domestic violence issues, but addressing their own mental health concerns that could leads to suicides and other health crises, she said.
"We don't often talk about men being imprisoned by gender stereotypes but I can see that that they are and that when they are free, things will change for women as a natural consequence," Watson continued. "I want men to take up this mantle. So their daughters, sisters, and mothers can be free from prejudice but also so that their 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."
Watson was not the only star in New York trying to get an audience in front of the United Nations. Actors Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, and Evangeline Lilly also took part in a large People's Climate Change rally in New York City on Sunday two days before the United Nation's summit to draw attention to the
climate change issue, according to the New York Daily News.
DiCaprio, who was named the U.N.'s Messenger of Peace, was greeted Saturday by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who called the actor the "new voice for climate advocacy."
"His global stardom is the perfect match for this global challenge,"
Ki-moon said of DiCaprio, according to the UN News Centre.
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