| Time | Text |
|---|---|
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He For She Campaign
00:07:11
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|
| Bumzile, thank you very much. | |
| Your words truly, truly inspiring, an excellent way, an inspired way to kick off our he for she campaign. | |
| I just love it when the UN gets involved in gender-based social campaigns. | |
| He for she, I must say, is a solidarity movement, a partnership between women and men. | |
| Why is it that feminists seem to act like they want to marry society? | |
| Everything they do is a request for commitment. | |
| Based on a shared commitment to fight against the persisting inequalities faced by women and girls. | |
| Name one. | |
| And now let's turn to a young woman who at 20 years old had a personal wealth of $32 million. | |
| Who has chosen to lend her voice to this very important solidarity movement. | |
| She's a leading British actor, an advocate for gender equality in her own right. | |
| She's been involved with the promotion of girls' education for several years. | |
| As part of her humanitarian efforts, she's visited Bangladesh, Zambia, recently returned, as we just heard from Uruguay on her first mission with UN women. | |
| If she's going to start talking about the plight of first world women after visiting third world women, I'm going to be rather upset. | |
| Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming to this stage our co-host and the UN Women's Global Goodwill Ambassador, Emma Watson. | |
| Save us from patriarchy! | |
| What is with this music? | |
| Your Excellencies, UN Secretary General, President of the General Assembly, Executive Director of UN Women, and distinguished guests. | |
| And obstreperous commentators of the internet. | |
| Today, we are launching a campaign called He for She. | |
| Sounds sexy. | |
| I am reaching out to you because we need your help. | |
| What can a poor man like me do for a multi-millionaire 20-something? | |
| And how can I do that for free? | |
| We want to end gender inequality. | |
| You'll be telling us how much everyone hates the word feminism next. | |
| And to do this, we need everyone involved. | |
| I'm rather busy. | |
| 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 change. | |
| Wow, that didn't sound sinister at all. | |
| And we don't just want to talk about it. | |
| We want to try and make sure that it's tangible. | |
| If you insist, I'll fire up the old brainwashing machine. | |
| I was appointed as Goodwill Ambassador for UN Women six months ago. | |
| And the more I've spoken about feminism, the more I have realized that fighting for women's rights has too often become synonymous with man-hating. | |
| But hashtag kill all men was such a roaring success. | |
| How could this be? | |
| If there is one thing I know for certain, it is that this has to stop. | |
| I'm not sure there's a way of persuading feminists not to hate men. | |
| It seems to be a fundamental tenet of their religion. | |
| But what do I know? | |
| I'm a full supporter of the patriarchy. | |
| For the record, feminism, by definition, is the belief that there are indeed ways that secular societies can be persuaded to adopt religions. | |
| That men and women should have equal rights and opportunities. | |
| Name a right I have that you don't. | |
| Miss 20-something multi-millionaire. | |
| It is the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes. | |
| Well, that's great because some theories are just plain wrong. | |
| You already have political and economic equality under Western laws. | |
| There is not a Western country in existence that thinks women should get paid less or not have the right to vote. | |
| If your problem is social equality, then what you need to do is stop Western societies from being free countries. | |
| I started questioning gender-based assumptions a long time ago. | |
| When I was eight, I was confused being called bossy. | |
| I strongly suspect it's why you landed the role of Hermione. | |
| Because I wanted to direct the plays that we would put on for our parents. | |
| But the boys were not. | |
| When at 14, I started to be sexualized by certain elements of the media. | |
| It's indefensible, but it's not surprising. | |
| When at 15, my girlfriends started dropping out of their beloved sports teams because they didn't want to appear muscly. | |
| Sorry, are you saying that you need feminism because your friends are straight? | |
| When at 18, my male friends were unable to express their feelings. | |
| What are you talking about? | |
| They can express their feelings just fine. | |
| They're just not the feelings that you express. | |
| I decided that I was a feminist, and this seemed uncomplicated to me. | |
| I think that can be best attributed to your youth and the circles you travel in. | |
| But my recent research has shown me that feminism has become an unpopular word. | |
| Well, I simply can't explain this one. | |
| I'm just going to assume that society at large is deeply misogynistic. | |
| Women are choosing not to identify as feminist. | |
| And that is the most offensive thing they could do to feminists. | |
| It effectively makes them apostates because we feminists always speak for all women. | |
| Apparently, I am among the ranks of women whose expressions are seen as too strong. | |
| You're up here whining. | |
| Too aggressive. | |
| And nagging. | |
| Isolating. | |
| And meddling. | |
| And anti-men. | |
| At least that bit was honest. | |
| Unattractive, even. | |
|
Words With Weight
00:04:48
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|
| Hey, I didn't say that. | |
| But incessant nagging, whining, and meddling isn't very attractive. | |
| Why has the word become such an uncomfortable one? | |
| Yet, that might have happened. | |
| A lot of people switch off when you say nigger. | |
| Because some words are associated with quite extraordinary amounts of bigotry. | |
| And using them is usually a sign that a very awkward and counterproductive conversation is about to happen. | |
| I am from Britain. | |
| I did tell you I was going to get upset if you were going to start talking about first world countries. | |
| And I 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 life. | |
| I had no idea you were such a nationalist. | |
| I think it is right that socially I am afforded the same respect as men. | |
| Then you're going to have to come down a few notches because most men don't socially get the same respect as you. | |
| But sadly, I can say that there is no one country in the world where all women can expect to receive these rights. | |
| You just said Britain has these rights for women. | |
| Are you suggesting there's some sort of slave class of women that isn't paid the same, can't vote, and everyone spits on in the street? | |
| No country in the world can yet say that they have achieved gender equality. | |
| Yes, they can, but you're talking about gender parity. | |
| You're talking about equality of outcome rather than equality of opportunity. | |
| You are either anti-free choice or anti-free market. | |
| Choose. | |
| 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. | |
| Which is not uncommon in Britain. | |
| My school did not limit me because I was a girl. | |
| My mentors didn't assume that 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 they probably just thought they were egalitarians. | |
| We need more of those. | |
| And if you still hate the word, it is not the word that is important. | |
| It's the idea and the ambition behind it. | |
| Nobody cares about the word. | |
| They care about the bigoted actions of feminism that render the female supremacy movement that it is unacceptable in a free and equal society. | |
| Because not all women have received the same rights that I have. | |
| In fact, statistically, very few have been. | |
| Yep, fair enough. | |
| There are definitely women in the third world who need feminism. | |
| My question is: why is anything being asked of me, a first world man who is in no way responsible for any of this? | |
| In 1997, Hillary Clinton made a famous speech in Beijing about women's rights. | |
| Sadly, many of the things that she wanted to change are still true today. | |
| Are you aware that Beijing is in China? | |
| But what stood out for me the most was that less than 30% of the 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. | |
| To which I respectfully decline. | |
| I will not be part of a bigoted female supremacist cult. | |