Emma Watson Lauds Iceland's HeForShe Efforts; 'Beauty The Beast' Star Praises Country's Men
"Beauty and the Beast" actress Emma Watson praised men in Iceland for their support on the HeForShe campaign.
On June 1, Emma Watson tweeted, "I believe that men in Iceland are increasingly recognizing that gender equality is a global human rights issue.."
In her UN speech on the launch of the HeForShe campaign, the "Beauty and the Beast" star urged men to lobby for gender equality because it is their issue, too.
"I've seen my father's role as a parent being valued less by society despite my needing his presence, as a child, as much as my mother's," she said. "I've seen young men suffering from mental illness, unable to ask for help, for fear it would make them less of a men-or less of a man."
"In fact, in the U.K., suicide is the biggest killer of men, between 20 to 49, eclipsing road accidents, cancer and coronary heart disease. I've seen men made fragile and insecure by a distorted sense of what constitutes male success. Men don't have the benefits of equality, either," said "Beauty and the Beast" actress Emma Watson.
A piece from Gunnar Bragi Sveinsson written for The Guardian explained just why is all praises for Icelandic men.
"It may not sound much to have almost 8,600 men sign up and pledge to take action for gender equality. However, if you consider Iceland´s population you realize that this is one in 20 men in the country standing up for female empowerment," he wrote.
When you apply the same computation to the UK, the numbers would translate to more than 1.5 million men.
But "Beauty and the Beast" star Emma Watson praising men in Iceland shouldn't come as a surprise since Iceland holds the distinction for voting the first female president in the whole world. It also tops the gender parity index of the World Economic Forum since 4 in 10 of the members of the parliament are women.
"Women's participation in the labour market in Iceland is one of the highest in the world at close to 80%, almost on a par with men," the article added.