Emma Watson Recalls How Shockingly Gross Paparazzi Acted on Her 18th Birthday

"If they had published the photographs 24 hours earlier, they would have been illegal," Watson recalled.

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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Emma Watson is taking aim at the truly disgusting behavior of paparazzi, recently recounting a harrowing incident that occurred on her 18th birthday as another example of the pervasiveness of blatant sexism. "I think it’s how we live our own lives and how we live our daily lives," Watson told the crowd at a HeForShe press conference on Tuesday when asked how to actively engage with the movement toward true equality, according to the Huffington Post. In celebration of International Women’s Day, Emma Watson and HeForShe launched HeForShe Arts Week in New York City with a discussion on gender inequality and its personal impact on women and families across the world.

"I remember on my 18th birthday I came out of my birthday party and photographers laid down on the pavement and took photographs up my skirt," Watson told the audience, adding that she then saw the photos published on various tabloid covers early the next morning. "If they had published the photographs 24 hours earlier, they would have been illegal," Watson noted, as quoted by the Post. "I think that’s just one example of how my transition to womanhood was dealt with very differently by the tabloid press than it was for my male colleagues."

In February, the Brown University grad joined feminist activist and writer Gloria Steinem for an equally impassioned discussion on sexism. "Our bodies are instruments not ornaments," Steinem told Watson and the audience, as quoted by Time. "We should celebrate our different shapes and sizes, our caesarean scars and all the other beautiful imperfections that make us who we are."

For more information on HeForShe, visit here.

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