In what appears to be a misogynist attack directed at Harry Potter actress Emma Watson, a site has appeared supposedly offering a countdown until Emma Watson images are released online. Gawker reports that the site has appeared in the wake of a feminist speech the actress made at the U.N.
The Emma Watson images countdown site was announced in now-deleted discussion threads on 4Chan, but comments were posted by the blog Death and Taxes.
Offensive comments included, “It is real and going to happen this weekend. That feminist b**** Emma is going to show the world she is as much of a w**** as any woman,” and “she makes stupid feminist speeches at UN, and now her nudes will be online, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH”.
Death and Taxes threw doubt on the likely authenticity of the Emma Watson images, saying that they were “almost certainly” fakes.
Emma Watson images: ‘Almost certainly’ fakes
The site, entitled Emma You Are Next, referring to recent leaks of other celebrity pictures, as discussed by ESET’s Stephen Cobb in a blog post here, says, “Never forget. The biggest to come thus far.”
Watson has spoken out in support of friends who have fallen victims to similar attacks, according to Metro, “Even worse than seeing women's privacy violated on social media is reading the accompanying comments that show such a lack of empathy,” she recently posted on Twitter.
Feminist speech at UN
The ‘offending’ speech at the UN which provoked the Emma Watson images countdown site was an impassioned plea for women’s rights, which included firmly egalitarian sentiments such as, "The more I have spoken about feminism, the more I have realized that fighting for women’s rights has too often become synonymous with ‘man-hating.’ If there is one thing I know for certain, it is that this has to stop."
"For the record, feminism, by definition, is ‘the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities. It is the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes."
