Saturday, July 07, 2007

My Weekend Crush

OK. Before you start calling me nasty names, storming my house with torches and pitchforks and alerting Chris Hansen, let me explain. Not all my crushes are necessarily lustful. I am not suggesting anything improper with Miss Watson. I’m not trying to over sexualize a 17-year-old girl and frown vigorously upon the rampant objectification of young women in our society. Instead, what intrigues me about Emma is the promise of a brilliant woman primed to emerge from the girl we’ve watched grow up these last six years. I have the same feeling about her I had back in 1994 when I first saw a then 13-year-old Natalie Portman in “The Professional.” Something along the lines of, “Wow, in about 10 years that girl is really going to be amazing.”

When I see an impressive young woman anywhere, I smile at the potential that awaits the passage of time. And I am happy that unlike so many of the false idols out there for young girls to worship, Emma seems to genuinely have her head screwed on straight and her priorities in order. She is serious about her studies. She hasn’t disparaged any other actresses’ private parts or stolen their skanky boyfriends. And she appears intent on carving out a career of substance, regardless of the path she picks after her Harry Potter days are over. It’s young women like Emma who give me hope for our popular culture which too often treasures trash over talent, salaciousness over smarts. So thank you, Emma. And call me in, say, 10 years. I’ll be near midlife crisis by then and ready for a 20-something hottie and a sports cars. Hey, it worked for Melissa Etheridge. Happy weekend, all.

3 comments:

Amanda said...

I thought that was Julia Roberts until I read the post. Looks just like her! Anyways, I'm excited for HP and I hope to see more of Emma afterwards. She and Natalie are alike in that they take their studies seriously (Natalie graduated from Harvard for crying out loud)

Anonymous said...

People has a short piece on Emma that echos many of the same sentiments. Good for her, to not feel like she has to be one of the herd.

http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20044820,00.html

June said...

As is often the case, your sentiments echo mine exactly! At my ripe old 50-something age, it's encouraging to see young women who have such promise. Alas, my generation only produced a few, like Jodie Foster, who lived up to that early promise. I'll be watching Emma with the same interest I have long had in Natalie's career and smart choices.