“I find the whole concept of being sexy embarrassing and confusing… I know everyone wants a picture of me in a mini-skirt, but that’s not me. I feel uncomfortable… Personally, I don’t actually think it’s even that sexy. What’s sexy about saying, ‘I’m here with my boobs out, and a short skirt. Have a look at everything I’ve got’?”

Much has changed since 2009, when Emma Watson spoke these very words in an interview. As it happens, earlier this March, Watson posed for a Vanity Fair photoshoot in which she appeared revealing her torso and most of her breasts. Confusion consequently ensued when she was criticized for hypocritically fighting for women’s rights and flashing the general public in a magazine. The accusers have a point.

Much of the controversy was fueled by a 2014 Wonderland interview in which Watson dissed Beyonce for, on the one hand, “putting herself in a category of a feminist,” all the while giving into the “male voyeuristic experience of her.” Though these quotations from her past scream “hypocrite,” much can change in a person in just a few years. What startled me was Emma Watson’s choice to portray herself this way after all her talk against the sexualization of women, and her confused act in response to everyone else’s confusion.

The thing is, nudity sells; particularly female nudity. Emma Watson could not have been so oblivious as to not know she was lending her body to an industry that makes money off her underboob, and has been making money off women’s bodies for years. In fact, many studies have been conducted on the hypersexualization of women in magazines and most have come to the same conclusion: More often than not, western culture advertising portrays women as sex objects. One study in particular found that in the 2000’s, up to 83 percent of women featured in Rolling Stones alone were sexualized, as opposed to only 17 percent of men. By sticking her naked breasts into a magazine, Emma Watson made it less about empowerment and more about publicity for herself and for Vanity Fair. In fact, many speak of her body in this particular photoshoot, but I have not heard a single soul say a word about her interview for the cover story.

On top of the exploitation of female models is the flawed idea that many seem to have in this day and age, that nudity equals freedom and liberation. “My body, my choice” resounds everywhere these days, but if female empowerment becomes reduced to the naked body, then we are just playing into what we claim to be fighting. I don’t want to have to flash my boobs to be listened to, nor do I feel the need to do so in order to be free. This is not what freedom is. Sexuality should not be the sole or most effective form of empowerment.

​As​ ​women,​ ​we​ ​need​ ​to stop​ ​placing​ ​our​ ​worth​ ​on​ ​our​ ​bodies​ ​and​ ​our​ ​sexuality​ ​and​ ​start​ ​seeing​ ​ourselves​ ​as​ ​free​ ​and valuable​ ​beyond​ ​our​ ​sex​ ​appeal​ ​and​ ​reproductive​ ​system. In response to the Emma Watson controversy, Finn Mackey, feminism researcher at the University of West England said, “The most radical thing that women can do in this culture is keep their clothes on and open their mouths and make political points,” and I think she has a point.

Columnist Samantha Miner’s opposing piece can be read here.

Letizia Mariani can be reached at mari8259@stthomas.edu