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Emma Watson on the Pressure to Wed
The actor equates it to ‘a violence’ against young people
A few years ago, actor Emma Watson declared herself “self-partnered.”
Watson was approaching her 30th birthday as a single woman without a romantic partner, which caused her pain. As she said at the time, she didn’t believe she — or any woman— could actually be happy single.
“I was like, ‘Why does everyone make such a big fuss about turning 30? This is not a big deal’ … Cut to 29, and I’m like, ‘Oh my God, I feel so stressed and anxious. And I realize it’s because there is suddenly this bloody influx of subliminal messaging around. If you have not built a home, if you do not have a husband, if you do not have a baby, and you are turning 30, and you’re not in some incredibly secure, stable place in your career, or you’re still figuring things out … There’s just this incredible amount of anxiety.”
Now 35, Watson sees just how unhealthy societal pressure to be married by a certain age is, especially for young women, as she recently said on a podcast:
“I think it’s such a violence, and it’s such a cruelty on people — especially young people, I think, and especially women — to make them feel like they have no worth or like they haven’t succeeded yet in life because they haven’t forced to its…
