In the latest instalment of the ongoing series, “Is this feminist or is it more of the same old nonsense?” the actor – and feminist – Emma Watson is being forced to defend going nearly topless for a shoot for Vanity Fair magazine. “Feminism is about giving women choice,” she said. “Feminism is not a stick with which to beat other women with. It’s about freedom, it’s about liberation, it’s about equality. I really don’t know what my tits have to do with it.”

I like to remember, as the writer Andi Zeisler memorably put it: “Not everything a feminist does is a feminist act.” So Watson can, and should, do whatever she wants without living in fear of how she will be judged because, goodness knows, women are judged enough.

The Emma Watson Vanity Fair cover … The March is out now. Photograph: Tim Walker/Vanity Fair

The error here, though, is to describe as feminist a nearly topless shoot for a magazine that often likes its women underdressed.

In 1995 the magazine launched its first Hollywood issue, marking the start of an annual tradition, featuring the hottest stars of the year. In what must be one of the most bizarre shoots ever, actors including Nicole Kidman, Uma Thurman and Julianne Moore all appear to have turned up in their nighties or just their underwear. Sandra Bullock has forgotten her shoes. Only Gwyneth Paltrow is dressed.

Demi Moore went naked and pregnant in 1991; Caitlin Jenner revealed herself to the world in a skimpy bustier in 2015. Then there was the infamous photograph in which a 15-year-old Miley Cyrus was suggestively shot, apparently clothed in nothing but a sheet. A spokesperson for the Disney Channel, home of the Hannah Montana show in which the Cyrus was a star, said she had been “deliberately manipulated”. Cyrus said she was “so embarrassed”.

Witness the shoot with fully clothed fashion designer Tom Ford, hanging out with naked Keira Knightley and Scarlett Johansson. Poor Johansson has taken on a blue pallor, possibly the first stages of hypothermia. Imagine a world where, one day, the gender pay gap will be cut and women will finally be able to afford clothes all year round.