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Girl Power Was Free-Flowing At The 2017 MTV Movie & TV Awards

Girl Power Was Free-Flowing At The 2017 MTV Movie & TV Awards

”Beauty and the Beast” and “Stranger Things” may have taken home the big awards at Sunday’s MTV Movie & TV Awards, but feminism was the real winner of the night.

Actress and activist Emma Watson set the tone for the evening as she accepted the Best Actor award for her role in “Beauty and the Beast.” Watson cheered MTV for dropping its gendered acting categories, agreeing that male and female actors don’t “need to be separated into two different categories.”

”MTV’s move to create a genderless award for acting will mean something different to everyone, but to me it indicates that acting is about the ability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes ― and that doesn’t need to be separated into two different categories,” Watson said. “Empathy, and the ability to use your imagination, should have no limits.”

Watson also expressed admiration for her “Beauty and the Beast” character, Belle, saying the Best Actor award was for “who Belle is and what she represent[s].”

“The village in our fairytale wanted to make Belle believe that our world was smaller than the way she saw it — that her curiosity and her passion for knowledge were grounds for alienation,” Watson added. “I loved playing someone who didn’t listen to any of that. I’m so proud to be a part of a film that celebrates diversity, literacy, inclusion, joy, and love the way that this one does.”