This is what a feminist looks like.

Emma Watson has lately made the news, the tweets and blogs quite often, after she started the new HeforShe campaign with the United Nations. Suddenly she changed from being just a normal actress to an advocate for women´s rights. Her powerful speech at the United Nations Summit in September started a wave of feminism all over the media. The new issue of the Elle.uk is called the feminist issue and has Emma Watson on the cover (picture below). But what it this all about? Is Elle just using the new wave of feminism?

The whole issue is made by women and is therefore supposed to be feminist. While this is a great idea, I get the feeling that the magazine just wanted to jump the bandwagon. Emma Watson is not only advocating women to stand up and embrace their rights/power, but also men to stand up and encourage women to speak for themselves and insist on their equal rights. This whole topic is somehow getting lost in the magazine. 

The question is: Did Elle just use Emma Watson and her new campaign to sell more magazines? Or did Emma Watson make a decision to try to reach more women by bringing her campaign into the magazine? I am pretty sure that both are the case in this situation. Elle is very much using the topic as a advertisement for themselves, while Emma Watson needs to broaden her base which she tries to do by entering into the living room of women through a popular magazine. Both partners are benefitting from this. 

All in all I do like this commercial, because it has a good cause. People might also think about the questions I raised before, but I believe that it is a good way to start a conversation on this topic. Women will be confronted by all of these strong women standing up for themselves and maybe this inspires the readers to stand up and speak up as well.