Watson spoke out about feminism and women's rights – and online trolls want to punish her for it
Over the weekend, Emma Watson lit up the internet with a pretty amazing speech to the UN about women's rights. She called herself a feminist. She called for men to join in the fight for gender equality. She even said that feminism wasn't about hating men. All pretty reasonable stuff. Unfortunately, a 4chan user doesn't feel the same way – in fact, he or she is threatening to release nude images of Emma Watson as revenge.
"It is real and going to happen this weekend. That feminist bitch Emma is going to show the world she is as much of a whore as any woman," the user commented.
"She makes stupid feminist speeches at UN, and now her nudes will be online, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH," wrote a second commenter.
A site counting down to the leak, Emma You Are Next, has been set up. Its tagline reads: "Never forget, the biggest to come thus far."
People already called for 4chan to be shut down for its part in the celebrity photo leak that saw hundreds of private and intimate images released on the internet – and this only adds more fuel to the fire.
While Reddit users speculate that the threat is just a hoax, some 4chan members have claimed that the imageboard site is being set up. According to them, 4chan has always been a fan of the actress and would never ever do something as unsavoury as post illegally obtained images of women. Promise!
"Whoever's running that website, is trying to frame us," one user said, "and they're making the entire internet and world believe that we somehow hate Emma Watson... Which is fucking ridiculous. Everyone on 4chan should be concerned that someone else might be trying to frame us and take us down."
"It's the SJWs (social justice warriors)," explained another. "4chan stands among few places for people to openly speak up about the bullshit SJWs spew and they want to discredit this website entirely by making up ridiculous bullshit like this."
SJW, by the way, is 4chan's word of choice for someone who campaigns online for LGBT rights, anti-racism and... oh yeah, feminism.
Further down the thread, more users accuse "feminazis" and "keyboard feminists" of wanting to shut down the site. Claiming you're not behind an anti-feminist act and pointing the finger at "feminazis"? You can't say 4chan doesn't do itself any favours.
Whether or not somebody is trying to troll 4chan or genuinely trying to punish Emma Watson, this is just one big sorry mess – and it's all because Watson is a woman who dares to speak out about being a feminist. Ben Affleck testified before Congress about conflict in the Congo; did anybody threaten to leak his nude photos?
In her speech, Watson talks about being treated differently as a woman to her male counterparts. That's exactly what's happening here.
Either way, there's never been a more appropriate time to revisit this video:
