Last summer Joseph Gordon-Levitt spoke candidly to The Daily Beast about being a feminist, and, as the actor reveals in this issue of his video series Hit Record, he was surprised by the amount of attention the interview received. To better understand what shapes people’s fear of the “F-word” (Levitt says he recently became familiar with Women Against Feminism) the actor is now encouraging all interested parties to send him a video explaining their personal relationship to feminism.
Seeing a male public figure continuing to be so vocal about his feminism is particularly inspiring in light of Emma Watson’s U.N. Goodwill Ambassador speech this past weekend, in which she called for men to take up the mantle of feminism as part of the HeForShe human rights campaign. But as fortifying as it is to see Levitt promoting the idea that feminism isn’t just a women’s rights issue, it’s also kind of bittersweet– just days after her HeForShe speech, Watson has already been the target of scary online harassment; the list of women like Anita Sarkeesian who’ve received death and rape threats for speaking their mind on Youtube is appallingly long. While I don’t doubt Levitt has probably been the subject of some harassment as well, it’s worth considering whether a woman in his position might be able to share a video like this without having her safety and privacy seriously threatened.
To be clear, I’m stoked Levitt is using his fame so responsibly and working to challenge and explore the stigma surrounding feminism, I just think it’s worth noting society’s double standards are present even in the reception received by vocal feminists–and judging from Levitt’s statements so far, I suspect the actor would agree.
You make my dreams come true, JGL. Give those trolls what for.
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