As a younger woman, that pressure got me down, but I've made my peace with it. With airbrushing and digital manipulation, fashion can project an unobtainable image that's dangerously unhealthy. I'm excited about the ageing process. I'm more interested in women who aren't perfect. They're more compelling.
Interpretation
The quote reflects a journey towards self-acceptance and a critique of unrealistic beauty standards in fashion.
Emma Watson shares her experiences with societal pressures regarding beauty in her youth, expressing how these pressures affected her mental health. However, she has learned to embrace the reality of aging and appreciates the beauty in imperfection, finding deeper interest in women's authentic selves rather than their adherence to unrealistic standards perpetuated by media and fashion photography.
In practice
This quote can be used during a women's empowerment event to highlight the importance of embracing one's true self.
Becoming yourself is really hard and confusing, and it's a process. I was completely the eager beaver in school, I was the girl in the front of the class who was the first person to put her hand up, and it's often not cool to be the person that puts themself out there, and I've often gotten teased mercilessly, but I found that ultimately if you truly pour your heart into what you believe in - even if it makes you vulnerable - amazing things can and will happen.
Both men and women should feel free to be sensitive. Both men and women should feel free to be strong... It is time that we all perceive gender on a spectrum not as two opposing sets of ideals.
I've never wanted to grow up too fast. I wanted to wear a sports bra until I was 22! ... The allure of being sexy never really held any excitement for me. I've never been in a terrible rush to be seen as a woman.
Don't be ashamed if you don't like what others pretend to love
Feminism is not here to dictate to you. It’s not prescriptive, it’s not dogmatic. All we are here to do is give you a choice. If you want to run for President, you can. If you don’t, that’s wonderful, too. I’m lucky I was raised to believe that my opinion at the dinner table was valuable. My mum and I spoke as loudly as my brothers.
Men think it's a women's word. But what it means is that you believe in equality, and if you stand for equality, then you're a feminist. Sorry to tell you. You're a feminist. You're a feminist. That's it.
The right to have access to every building in the city by private motorcar in an age when everyone possesses such a vehicle is actually the right to destroy the city.
There is the strange power we have of changing facts by the force of the imagination.
...in respect of riches, no citizen shall ever be wealthy enough to buy another, and none poor enough to be forced to sell himself.
Peter Lake had no illusions about mortality. He knew that it made everyone perfectly equal, and that the treasures of the earth were movement, courage, laughter, and love. The wealthy could not buy these things. On the contrary, they were for the taking.
If the world was perfect, it wouldn't be.
The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort.
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