Here are some wonderful, inspiring, gutsy, beautiful, confident, empowering and fantastic people in Hollywood who are advocates for feminism.
1. Emma Watson
The queen of the modern feminist movement herself, Emma Watson is famous for being the United Nations Women Goodwill Ambassador and creating the #HeForShe campaign. Check out her awesome speech here.
2. Zendaya
At just 19, Zendaya advocates for body image issues, badass women, and especially women of color. She has also just had a Barbie Doll modeled after her "Oscars look." Recently, she posted a before and after photo on her Instagram after a magazine severely photoshopped her curves. A Disney channel star, she has the grit and wit of a strong, empowered woman:
I think to be a feminist, in any sense, is just to believe in equality. To believe in the power of a woman is just as much of the power of anyone else. I think a feminist is someone who support other women, is someone who appreciates other women just as much as themselves. I just think there’s just a lot of one-sided feminism and misinterpretation of feminism. It’s not anti anything else. It’s just allowing women a place and saying that we are just as good a anyone else. We are good enough, and I think girl power is so important.
3. Rowan Blanchard
Another Disney star, Blanchard responded to an inquiry about "white feminism" on her Tumblr (read the post). This girl just turned 14, and she is a reminder that a part of feminist exposure is educating young people and changing the world for the better.
4. Aziz Ansari
A comedian who often speaks about feminism in his stand-up, Aziz Ansari voices his opinions in this video.
5. Demi Lovato
Demi Lovato fights for being confident with who you are. Recently, Demi did a photo-shoot with Vanity Fair. She had three rules: "No makeup, no clothes and no retouching." Watch the inspiring video about it here.
6. Nicki Minaj
Unless you're stuck in 2009, you probably have noticed how great this woman is. One of my favorites, Nicki Minaj argues for women to unashamedly embrace and reclaim their sexuality. She speaks about education, safe sex, equal pay and basically everything else a feminist role model should cover. She is famous for saying, "When I am assertive, I'm a bitch. When a man is assertive, he's a boss." Check this list out.
Now, here are three kickass women comedians who you should all look up to.
7. Amy Poehler
Please watch all of her Smart Girls videos.
8. Tina Fey
Now watch this.
9. Amy Schumer
Okay. This. Wow.
The two former ladies have published books, which you can purchase here and here, and Amy Schumer plans to release one in late 2016.
10. Ashton Kutcher
If you've never looked into Ashton Kutcher as a person, you definitely should. Besides fighting for his disabled brother, making that awesome speech at the Teen Choice Awards, and being absolutely crazy in love with his wife and daughter, he's also a huge feminist. When speaking about a scene showing female sexual pleasure in his film, "No Strings Attached", Kutcher said the following:
I think there’s so much that’s not said about sex in our country, even from an educational level… the one thing they teach about is how to get pregnant or how to not get pregnant, but they don’t really talk about sex as a point of pleasure for women. That creates a place where women aren’t empowered around their own sexuality and their own sexual selves.
11. Joseph Gordon-Levitt
I love this man. Have you seen his adorable younger self in "10 Things I Hate About You"? Anyway, he once went on "The Ellen Degeneres Show" and had the following to say:
My mom brought me up to be a feminist. She would always point out to my brother and me that our culture does often portray women like objects. For example, we would always watch Lakers games as a family, but my mom would always point out every time the cheerleaders come on, ‘OK, so look, here’s the story that gets told: The men get to be the heroic skilled athletes and the women just get to be pretty.’ She didn’t mean any offense to any individual woman who was working as a cheerleader, but she wanted me and my brother to be aware of it because we see these images on TV, in the movies, and on magazines all the time. And if you don’t stop and think about it, it just sort of seeps into your brain and that becomes the way you perceive reality. I do call myself a feminist. Absolutely! It’s worth paying attention to the roles that are sort of dictated to us and that we don’t have to fit into those roles. We can be anybody we wanna be.
12. Laverne Cox
You need to open a new tab and follow this woman on Twitter right now. Laverne Cox gained fame for starring in the hit television show, "Orange is the New Black," both for her acting and being such a great and inspiring transgender activist. She fights for all people who identify as women and recounts her personal struggles to continue to gain equality. You should definitely check out this article, proclaiming Cox as "the woman we've been waiting for."
13. Jennifer Lawrence
Recently, Jennifer Lawrence wrote an essay about how she has personally experienced sexism and the wage gap in the workplace. Here's my favorite line:
I’m over trying to find the “adorable” way to state my opinion and still be likable! Fuck that. I don’t think I’ve ever worked for a man in charge who spent time contemplating what angle he should use to have his voice heard. It’s just heard.
14. Beyoncé
There's too much good about Beyoncé for me to fit into this little article. Unless you've been living under a rock, you're probably aware she's a proud feminist.
15. Barack and Michelle Obama
Lastly, Barack and Michelle Obama. We should all be so grateful to live in a country where the president and first lady are so dedicated to fighting for equality.
This concludes the short list of celebrity feminists, although please remember there are many more and the list continues to grow. Time to get on board! With Halloween just around the corner, make sure you watch out for all these spooky, scary feminists!