Emma Watson at the UN: HeForShe Campaign Launch 2014

“Gender equality is your issue too” · 艾玛·沃特森 2014 年联合国 HeForShe 运动启动演讲全文

Speaker: Emma Watson, UN Women Goodwill Ambassador Date: September 20, 2014 Venue: UN Headquarters, New York — launch of the HeForShe campaign Source: https://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2014/9/emma-watson-gender-equality-is-your-issue-too (UN Women official text)

Video/audio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkjW9PZBRfk (United Nations official channel)

Opening: Launching HeForShe

宣布发起 HeForShe 运动，邀请男性一起为性别平等发声。 / Launching HeForShe and inviting men and boys to stand for gender equality.

Your Excellencies, UN Secretary-General, President of the General Assembly, Executive Director of UN Women, and distinguished guests: Today we are launching a campaign called “ HeForShe .”

I am reaching out to you because I need your help. We want to end gender inequality— and to do that we need everyone to be involved.

This is the first campaign of its kind at the UN: we want to try and galvanize as many men and boys as possible to be advocates for gender equality. And we don’t just want to talk about it, we want to try to make sure it is tangible.

I was appointed as Goodwill Ambassador for UN Women six months ago and the more I have spoken about feminism the more I have realized that fighting for women’s rights has too often become synonymous with man-hating. If there is one thing I know for certain, it is that this has to stop.

What Feminism Means

女权主义是相信男女应享有平等的权利和机会；从 8 岁起她就开始质疑性别刻板印象。 / Feminism as equal rights and opportunities; her own experiences from age 8 to 18.

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.”

I started questioning gender-based assumptions a long time ago. when at eight I was confused at being called “bossy,” because I wanted to direct the plays we would put on for our parents—but the boys were not.

When at 14 I started being sexualized by certain elements of the press.

When at 15 my girlfriends started dropping out of their sports teams because they didn’t want to appear “muscly.”

When at 18 my male friends were unable to express their feelings.

I decided I was a feminist and this seemed uncomplicated to me. But my recent research has shown me that feminism has become an unpopular word.

An Uncomfortable Word

为什么“女权主义”成了不受欢迎的词；她作为女性应享有的权利，以及她的“无意的女权主义者”。 / Why “feminist” became unpopular; the rights she believes in and her inadvertent feminists.

Women are choosing not to identify as feminists. Apparently I am among the ranks of women whose expressions are seen as too strong, too aggressive, isolating, anti-men and, unattractive.

Why is the word such an uncomfortable one?

I am from Britain and think it is right that I am paid the same as my male counterparts. I think it is right that I should be able to make decisions about my own body. I think it is right that women be involved on my behalf in the policies and the decisions that will affect my country. I think it is right that socially I am afforded the same respect as men. But sadly I can say that there is no one country in the world where all women can expect to receive these rights.

No country in the world can yet say they have achieved gender equality.

These rights I consider to be human rights but I am one of the lucky ones. My life is a sheer privilege because my parents didn’t love me less because I was born a daughter. My school did not limit me because I was a girl. My mentors didn’t assume I would go less far because I might give birth to a child one day. These influencers were the gender equality 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. And we need more of those.

And if you still hate the word—it is not the word that is important but the idea and the ambition behind it. Because not all women have been afforded the same rights that I have. In fact, statistically, very few have been.

Men Are Imprisoned Too

1995 年希拉里的北京演讲；性别刻板印象也伤害男性，男性也应自由地表达脆弱。 / Gender stereotypes imprison men too; men should be free to be sensitive.

In 1995, Hilary Clinton made a famous speech in Beijing about women’s rights. Sadly many of the things she wanted to change are still a reality today.

But what stood out for me the most was that less than 30 per cent of her audience were male. How can we affect change in the world when only half of it is invited or feel welcome 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, I’ve seen my father’s role as a parent being valued less by society despite my needing his presence as a child as much as my mother’s.

I’ve seen young men suffering from mental illness unable to ask for help for fear it would make them look less of a man. In fact in the UK suicide is the biggest killer of men between 20 to 49; eclipsing road accidents, cancer and coronary heart disease. I’ve seen men made fragile and insecure by a distorted sense of what constitutes male success. Men don’t have the benefits of equality either.

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.

If men don’t have to be aggressive in order to be accepted women won’t feel compelled to be submissive. If men don’t have to control, women won’t 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 not as two opposing sets of ideals.

If we stop defining each other by what we are not and start defining ourselves by what we are—we can all be freer and this is what HeForShe is about. It’s about freedom.

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.

Why Me? Why Now?

“哈利·波特女孩”为何站在联合国；如果不是我，是谁？如果不是现在，是什么时候？ / Why the “Harry Potter girl” is at the UN: “If not me, who? If not now, when?”

You might be thinking who is this Harry Potter girl? And what is she doing speaking at the UN. It’s a good question I’ve been asking myself the same thing. All I know is that I care about this problem. And I want to make it better.

And having seen what I’ve seen—and given the chance—I feel it is my duty to say something. English Statesman Edmund Burke said: “All that is needed for the forces of evil to triumph is for enough good men and women to do nothing.”

In my nervousness for this speech and in my moments of doubt I’ve told myself firmly—if not me, who, if not now, when. If you have similar doubts when opportunities are presented to you I hope those words might be helpful.

Because the reality is that if we do nothing it will take 75 years, or for me to be nearly a hundred before women can expect to be paid the same as men for the same work. 15.5 million girls will be married in the next 16 years as children. And at current rates it won’t be until 2086 before all rural African girls can have a secondary education.

Closing: Join HeForShe

呼吁相信平等的人都成为“无意的女权主义者”，加入这场团结的运动。 / Be an inadvertent feminist — step forward and join the uniting movement.

If you believe in equality, you might be one of those inadvertent feminists I spoke of earlier.

And for this I applaud you.

We are struggling for a uniting word but the good news is we have a uniting movement. It is called HeForShe. I am inviting you to step forward, to be seen And to ask yourself if not me, who? If not now, when?

Thank you very much.

Notes

Main text is UN Women’s official text, compared word by word against the human-made English captions of the UN’s official video (cross-checked with speech recognition) and corrected to what Watson actually said. Differences of four or more words are marked with footnote numbers; small wording variants are not marked. Applause is not transcribed.

1. ¶3, 1:38: official text “but”; spoken as “we want to try to”

2. ¶4, 1:45: spoken addition, not in the official text — “as Goodwill Ambassador for UN Women” 3. ¶6, 2:34: spoken addition, not in the official text — “a long time ago.”

4. ¶11, 3:30: spoken addition, not in the official text — “Women are choosing not to identify as feminists.”

5. ¶13, 4:31: official text “decision-making of”; spoken as “the decisions that will affect” 6. ¶18, 6:35: official text “only 30 per cent”; spoken as “less than 30 per cent” 7. ¶21, 7:36: official text ““macho”—in”; spoken as “of a man. In”

8. ¶21, 7:49: official text “20-49 years of age;”; spoken as “20 to 49;”

9. ¶27, 10:06: official text “and trust me, I have”; spoken as “I’ve”

10. ¶27, 10:09: in the official text but not spoken in the recording — “I don’t know if I am qualified to be here.”

11. ¶30, 11:35: official text “will be able to receive”; spoken as “can have”

12. ¶33, 12:14: in the official text but not spoken in the recording — “to speak up, to be the "he" for "she".”