Emma Wason, self-partnered, and everything in between we missed

That Emma Watson interview! Yes, the one trending with #self-partnered. It is everywhere. It has been on every twitter feed, tabloid, and instagram story. The November 4 interview with Paris Lees was for British Vogue in light of her upcoming movie Little Women. It featured Emma’s ‘I’m self-partnered, not single’ moment. Or so the news coverage made us believe. The actual interview is 30 minutes long. 29 of those minutes have nothing to do with her relationship status.

I watched all 30 minutes of the interview. At 1.20, she reflects on seeking advice from Gloria Steinem about backlash following the HeforShe campaign launch. At 3.50, she talks about relearning history from a different perspective at Brown University. At 15.36 she shares her apprehensions for the safety and quality of life of a six years old trans child she is acquainted with. Only at 28.03 does she mention, “I never believed the whole I’m happy single spiel I thought it was all spiel… but I’m very happy, I call it being self-partnered”. And all of this was somehow distilled to page six gossip.

British Vogue’s own title of the video “Emma Watson Talks Turning 30, Working With Meryl Streep, And Being Happily Single” did nothing to help.

But Paris Lees is not a tabloid interviewer. Vogue’s first transgender columnist in 125 years, she is a celebrity in her own right. She has been open about her arrest as a “silly teenage boy” and having sex for money to pay her way through college. She consistently writes for the empowerment of minorities. She values having a voice and platform in the British media. And it is important to understand why.

Having an impactful voice and platform is a privilege not everyone is privy to. Especially individuals who are not straight, white, and/or male. The UK Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) surveys prove this every year. In the UK, women make up less than 40% of the creative workforce as of 2018. This worsens to less than 15% for BAME (black, Asian and minority ethnic) individuals. As for LGBTQIA+ representation, the data is noticeably missing from the survey.

Within this band of creatives, Emma Watson holds an incredibly privileged position. She has been named the most influential British role model of the last 60 years. She came above the Queen and even the woman responsible for her current fame, JK Rowling. When even her voice is drowned out by patriarchal narratives, what hope remains for the rest?

In that self partnered interview, Emma does address the importance of hearing oppressed voices. She draws inspiration from Reni Eddo-Lodge’s book, ‘Why I’m no longer talking to white people about race?’.“I had really considered myself to be well-read and I have a university degree and I have the label of my university and suddenly it felt like this needs critical analysis. What I’ve learned, who I’ve read, why I’ve been told to read it, who’s been included, who hasn’t, whose voices are missing.” Emms goes a step further to affirm the reasons for her activism efforts. “I feel uncomfortable taking up as much space as I’m taking up and not speaking about any of this stuff. It doesn’t feel right,” she justifies.

Reni Eddo-Lodge herself though is tired of white narratives of the racial conversation. She makes a valid point. After centuries of mistreatment, the last thing a black woman needs is a white man telling her what’s wrong where. Minorities and the oppressed should have the mic for the majority part of conversations that deal with their representation and rights. It makes complete logical sense. Then what of Emma Watson, a white feminist who asks men to advocate for women?

Well, the fact remains that white and rich she may be, she has the strongest and most wide reaching platform to advocate for these issues. So is true of many men and white people in most industries including the arts. These individuals can be key allies to potential role models of minorities. On Google Trends, Emma Watson is currently a ‘breakout’ search term. This basically means everyone is looking her up in varied phrasing that include self partnered, Harry Potter, and dating. No surprise there. Of more interest is Paris Lees who experienced a 250% increase in the days following the interview. I was one of those googling her. Paris’ erudite questions and honest recollections do have strength and charm that undoubtedly stand independent of Emma’s prevalent presence. But it is because of the advertising and marketing momentum behind Emma Watson that I now know about Paris Lees.

Perhaps, this is where Emma’s HeforShe movement and Reni’s book find convergence. Emma has a platform that widens the reach of Paris’ voice. But it is ultimately Paris’ life story and struggles that move me, and hopefully others, to empathise with the LGBTQIA+ community in a way they have not before.

So yes, it is important for the characterisation of racial and gender bias to be drawn directly from the experiences and voices of people who have lived it.

But no, it is not necessary for them and only them to bear the burden of making their voices accessible in the first place.

This is where we need privileged individuals to extend their platform and make oppressed voices louder and clearer.

In his book Blink, Malcolm Gladwell uses Harvard’s Project Implicit to illustrate our subliminal conditioning towards genders and races. You would more quickly associate ‘good’ with white faces and ‘bad’ with black ones. No matter how many times you take the test. Even if you are not white. You would also more quickly assign female names to ‘family’ and male names to ‘career.’ Even if you are a career driven woman. How do you ace a test where even knowing the questions does not give you an edge?

There seems to be only one way. He found that when you attempted the test after listening to Martin Luther King Jr. or witnessing Usain bolt win another Olympic medal,you could rise above that subliminal conditioning. The same principle applies towards women and other stereotyped communities. It is a cycle where representation leads to positive perception and vice versa. It is a cycle oppressed communities long to break and enter.

Artists are the key representors of any community. They are the first external voices to reach us when we are young and impressionable. We know Hermione Granger before we learn of Rosa Parks. We watch the Oscars and Teen Choice Awards before we take an interest in political debates and Fortune 500 CEOs. I grew up the same and I’m sure most of you did too. This is why it bothers me when Emma Watson’s interview is unprofessionally covered. This is why I fear even more for minorities, like me, who dream of the platform she already has. Because whether she is self-partnered or single does not matter. Everything else she said and we did not hear, does.