Emma Watson Talks Sex and Consent: ‘I’ve Become Slightly Fascinated by Kink Culture’
Emma Watson opened up sexual consent and why she's "slightly fascinated by kink culture."
While talking to author Valerie Hudson for Teen Vogue, the Little Women star discussed the importance of communication in romantic relationships, as well as shared her beliefs on modern dating.
"I’ve also kind of become slightly fascinated by kink culture because they are the best communicators ever. They know all about consent," Watson said. "They smash that stuff because they really have to get it, but we could all use those models; they’re actually really helpful models."
She continued, "It requires an actual conversation and agreement about the delegation of tasks and labor and responsibilities that maybe you don’t feel that you need to have or should have if you follow those traditional stereotypes."
In fact, she said the healthiest relationships she's seen are between same-sex couples.
"I think they have to sit down and agree [on] things," Watson explained. "They agree [on] things between them as opposed to [accepting] certain sets of assumptions and expectations that are made."
Elsewhere in her conversation, the actress said she doesn't think relationships are "supposed to be easy."
"The idea that relationships are supposed to be easy and it’s all supposed to be implicitly understood, and you’re just meant to get each other, it’s bulls-–t! It’s impossible!"
The 29-year-old Harry Potter alum also addressed the backlash she received after describing herself as "self-partnered" in an interview with British Vogue in November 2019.
"I did an interview with Vogue magazine a couple of months ago, and I talked about how, in the run up to my 30s, [I felt] this incredible, sudden anxiety and pressure that I had to be married or have a baby or moving into a house," she said. "And there was no word for this kind of subliminal messaging and anxiety and pressure that I felt building up, but I couldn’t really name, and so I used the word 'self-partnered.'"
"For me it wasn’t so much about coining a word; it was more that I needed to create a definition for something that I didn’t feel there was language for," Watson added. "And it was really interesting because it really riled some people up! It was less for me about the word but more about what it meant -- just this idea that we need to reclaim language and space in order to express ourselves because sometimes it’s really not there."