Emma Watson has long been a strong supporter of women’s rights. She’s given UN addresses on gender equality and co-founded HeForShe, a movement that attempts to make gender equality a priority on college campuses. Emma is an environmental activist in addition to her work with women’s rights, and her recent red carpet press tour highlighted eco-friendly apparel brands.

Watson is now promoting the next live-action Beauty and the Beast adaption, which will be released on March 17th. Watson will play Belle in Disney’s second adaptation of Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont’s renowned fairy tale, following the 1991 animated version.

If you’re a die-hard Emma fan, you’ve probably heard about the braless Vanity Fair incident. And Watson just gave the most appropriate response to the ludicrous criticism.

Watson received backlash this week after Vanity Fair published a photo of her wearing a cloak that revealed her breasts, a reaction she was “quietly stunned” by, according to Reuters.

 

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Some began to refer to her as a “bad feminist” and a “hypocrite.” The photo’s opponents said that “revealing” images of women inevitably objectified them, contradicting feminist principles. Others, on the other hand, defended Emma, pointing out that she is free to make her own body decisions and that this photo does not detract from her excellent job.

Her work as a United Nations ambassador, her desire to create powerful female characters, and some of her ideas on modern feminism were also covered in the subsequent interview.

Some critics, including one thinkpiece in The Independent, chastised Watson for wearing a see-through top during the session, claiming she wouldn’t have “known herself” if she had posed “topless because of patriarchy or despite it.”

“Is actress and feminist Emma Watson a hypocrite for going topless in Vanity Fair?” asked Pret-a-Reporter in an article.

One tweeter user commented “Emma Watson: “Feminism, feminism… gender wage gap… why oh why am I not taken seriously… feminism… oh, and here are my tits!”

Watson tells costar Dan Stevens in a Reuters interview that detractors “were saying that I couldn’t be a feminist and have boobs.”

There are numerous misunderstandings about what feminism is, according to Emma. She stated, “Feminism is about giving women choice.” “Feminism is not a stick with which to beat other women, it’s about freedom, it’s about liberation, it’s about equality. I really don’t know what my tits have to do with it. It’s very confusing.”

She conveyed her pride in the photograph, which is ultimately what matters. “The shot itself, I was honestly slightly taken aback by, because we’d been doing so many crazy things on that shoot. But it felt incredibly artistic and I’ve been so creatively involved and engaged with [photographer Tim Walker], and I’m so thrilled about how interesting and beautiful the photographs were.”

“It always reveals to me how many misconceptions and what a misunderstanding there is of what feminism is.”

Feminism, she explained, is about “gender equality across the board.”

“I think the word is really difficult because it seems to inherently address a preferential treatment of the feminine over the masculine because it has the feminine in the word, and I think that’s a real oversight and misunderstanding,” she said. “This isn’t just girls are better than boys, boys are better than girls. This is just everyone deserves a fair chance.”