In an interview for Facebook about her HeForShe campaign yesterday, Emma Watson dropped a lot of top-notch feminist knowledge.
For example, "Women feel like we need permission. ... We need to lead and change that."
One of the topics she talked about was feminism, chivalry, and dating.
She was asked: "How would you feel as a [feminist] if a man held the door open for you?"
"I love having the door open for me. And I love being taken to dinner," Watson responded. "But isn't that just politeness? ... I think the key is — would you mind if I held the door open for you?" she asked her male interviewer.
She continued, "I'm polite and you're polite and we're making the world a better place with this small kind polite gesture."
She also answered the often-asked question: Can you be a feminist and still let the man pay for dinner?
"I actually took a man out for dinner recently. I chose the restaurant and I offered to pay and it was really awkward and uncomfortable," Watson said, laughing.
"But the cool thing about it was we were both willing to have the conversation about why it was awkward," she added.
She gave an example of the dinner conversation: "I chose the restaurant this time because it's my favorite restaurant, you can choose and pay next time. Or you can split it, or whatever! Whatever makes you both comfortable."
"Chivalry should be consensual," Watson continued. "It’s a problem when people expect things to be a certain way to follow a certain status quo."
"We're in transition right now," she concluded, "and everyone doesn't really feel like they know what to do — but it's OK. Just be willing to have that awkward conversation. It does come out OK in the end."
"We're never, ever, ever going to be able to fly as high unless we're both in support of each other," she said later.
So let's fly, Emma.
