The “Harry Potter” star fired back over the weekend at critics who have accused her of betraying her feminist values by revealing her cleavage in a recent Vanity Fair photo shoot.
“I really don’t know what my t- -s have to do with it. It’s very confusing,” the 26-year-old British actress and activist told Reuters while promoting her new flick, Disney’s live-action “Beauty and the Beast.”
In addition to being a UN goodwill ambassador, Emma Watson has helped launched HeForShe, a UN campaign encouraging men to advocate for feminism.
She appears on the cover of the magazine’s March issue, but it was a shot inside — of her in an open white crocheted bolero jacket with nothing on underneath — that drew criticism.
British journalist Julia Hartley-Brewer suggested the image, taken by fashion photographer Tim Walker, was hypocritical, given Watson’s feminist advocacy.
“Emma Watson: Feminism, feminism . . . gender wage gap . . . why oh why am I not taken seriously . . . feminism . . . oh, and here are my t- -s!” Hartley-Brewer tweeted.
Speaking to Reuters, Watson said her critics were distorting what it means to be a feminist.
“It just always reveals to me how many misconceptions and what a misunderstanding there is about what feminism is,” she said.
“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.”
Hartley-Brewer, meanwhile, received nearly 100 responses to her Watson-bashing tweet — overwhelmingly in support of the actress.