The Problem with Emrata and Julia Fox
and Feminism for Cool Girls™
Since the rise of social media (particularly TikTok) we’ve seen quite a few unsuspecting names become Gen Z’s “Feminist Icons” — Julia Fox and Emily “Emrata” Ratajkowski being the current standouts. Now I would say both of these women have a distinctly different brand but share the overall same message — women can and should do whatever they want. However, despite their best efforts to position themselves as these progressive, laidback, modern women there is still near constant pushback from both sides on these particular women and I am hoping to explore why that might be here.
This month Emrata launched her own podcast, High Low, that she self-describes as “Call Her Daddy meets Fresh Air” where she asks hard hitting questions about feminism such as, “Can you be a feminist and still get plastic surgery?” An interesting question, sure — but ultimately a shallow dive into what it means to be a woman in the 21st century. We caught these first glimpses of Emrata’s viewpoints on feminism in her 2021 book, My Body — a collection of essays where Emily contemplates what it means to be a beautiful woman. In the book she tells stories of the various men throughout her life who have used her body to get what they want, whether that be money, fame or power, with little to no regard on how it affected the author herself. The deepest Emrata goes is teetering on whether or not she is allowed to enjoy being hot, to let it empower her, and to profit off of it. If the patriarchy is going to exploit her, the least she could get is a cut. But this is where the introspection ends. At no point does Emrata dig any deeper and discuss how her own choices within the system are possibly (definitely) upholding the very system she wishes to crush. Emily Ratajkowski belongs to a particular school of thought that believes anything a woman chooses to do is inherently feminist and that to attack any of these choices is inherently misogynistic.
Cue Julia Fox. In Emily’s latest podcast episode, she sits down with Julia Fox (actress, model, Josh Safdie’s muse for Uncut Gems) and discusses what it means to be a hot girl and a feminist. They cover topics such as motherhood, sex, female empowerment, masculinity, etc. At one point in the episode they talk about how the patriarchy negatively effects men as well and that although they joke about hating men, it does make them nervous for the world their sons will grow up in. They both agree that of course not all men are bad but this is where Emily brings up an interesting comparison — she says “it’s like good cops and bad cops — I’m sure there are some nice people that work in the police force but one bad apple spoils the bunch” to which Julia responds, “if you’re one of the good ones and you aren’t speaking up on what the bad ones are doing, that makes you one of the bad ones. Silence is complicit.” While I fully agree with this statement, I can’t help but roll my eyes a little bit. At no point have we seen either one of them call out their own complicity in the system that is the patriarchy. While obviously, like all women, these two have suffered under the patriarchy we can’t deny that they have done plenty to perpetuate it as well. Deciding to profit off of their hotness instead of taking the time to dismantle the system is not a revolutionary or feminist stance simply because it is their choice. We all must make decisions under capitalism but to continue to exploit your looks for your own personal gain is doing nothing but upholding the patriarchy and we don’t have to pretend otherwise.
Julia Fox recently made a TikTok saying “aging is fully in” and that she is tired of seeing products with “anti-aging” on the label to which another user rightfully called her out for being a spokesperson for Xeomin (another kind of Botox, essentially.) Julia made a video in response to this comment saying she would “always get her bag, don’t hate honey” — and while this was clearly a humorous comment it speaks to something larger at play. Simply knowing you are a sellout does not make you any less of a sellout. I think the same thing when people discuss her relationship with Kanye West. While yes, Julia Fox was in the industry before this relationship, I think it’s fair to say she wasn’t a household name up until earlier this year when she began seeing “Ye”. In the span of 3 weeks we saw countless photos of the two of them trotting all around the country — on a hotel balcony in Miami, at a party in LA with Madonna, and in a garage in NYC for Julia’s bday where Kanye gifted her and all her friends baby Birkins. While I don’t believe women should be held responsible for the sins of their partners, it sure is interesting to see a self-proclaimed feminist like Julia Fox choose to date someone like Kanye West who has had a very long, very public history of misogyny. This is where I see so many young people online step in to defend Julia Fox. They excuse it as a PR relationship as if choosing to publicly align with someone so well known for being vile for “press” is any better. How am I supposed to trust anyone’s opinions on feminism when they would lose all of their principles for the chance of getting a Birkin? The patriarchy is awful except when it benefits me is not a good take.
And the problem we see is that a lot of the times when people do try to call them out for these half-baked takes, they do so by throwing in a sprinkle of internalized misogyny (or outright sexism, in the case of Bela Delgado’s incel rant at Julia). It’s hard to have these discussions on the internet where both sides are so quick to throw insults. And while I believe in growth and that we should give space and time for people to learn, I find it difficult to believe that Julia Fox or Emrata have grown in such a little time to now become the faces of feminism. I understand that we will never have perfect leaders and that as long as we are pursuing perfection we will be beating ourselves up. But I do think that doesn’t mean we have to praise such mediocre takes from women who are still very clearly holding up the patriarchy just because they’ve decided it’s their “choice.”
I’ll end with this: I think it’s amazing that two bright, interesting, and hot women are interested in feminism and tearing down the patriarchy. I think it’s a good way to introduce a new audience to ideas they maybe haven’t thought about. But I do wish that Emrata and Julia Fox would think a little more critically and put in a little more work to dismantle the patriarchy other than simply making TikTok videos.
