Keira Knightley’s Disney princess ban is staggeringly hypocritical
Because of the message, Keira Knightley banned her daughter from watching some Disney movies. The hypocrisy is staggering.
In case you haven’t heard, Keira Knightley is taking a stand. No, not a half-naked, air-brushed modeling stand per usual. Movies with a perceived negative female portrayal are her target. More specifically, cartoons are the target. Disney princesses beware.
Yes, in one of the most clear cases of virtue signaling ever scene, she’s come out strong against classic Disney movies. Her rationale on the Ellen show is that Cinderella shouldn’t wait around for a rich guy to rescue her, and The Little Mermaid shouldn’t have given her voice up for a man. Like the prominent Atlas statue outside the Rockefeller Center, one wonders how her frail shoulders can possibly withstand the insurmountable weight of such profound hypocrisy.
Let’s examine the messages.
Despite the absolute fact the Disney tales to which she objects are nothing more than oversimplified, classical love stories that depict wholesome relationships, let’s not pretend they are reality. Squirrels don’t wash dishes. Mermaids don’t actually exist, and if they did they wouldn’t speak English to Rastafarian crabs. Furthermore, a nest of mice can’t tailor a dress. Aside from that type of ridiculousness, she’s presumably opposed to two things. First, women who rely on men for anything. Second, women who sacrifice or objectify themselves for men.
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Love and happiness
If she’s going to analyze narratives so deeply, she should probably pay attention to the fact most of her success has come on the coattails of Johnny Depp in a series of pirate movies. Which is a problem because pirates are known for, ya know, raping and pillaging.
Of course, there’s also when she was a woman in distress who got saved in King Arthur. But the whole sword thing makes that one OK, right? And let’s not forget the epitome of gold digging, Elizabeth Bennet from Pride and Prejudice (Darcy? Really?). That’s a classic, however, so Knightley probably ignores the ambivalence.
Objectification
Aside from the numerous nude and semi-nude modeling photos, a substantial portion of her filmography objectifies her pert physique. She’s been topless, fully nude, and in more than one sex scene. Let’s not forget the BDSM scene in A Dangerous Method. “I want you to punish me” sends the message she wants her daughter to see, right? She performed a lap dance for a gangster in Domino. But that was her taking charge though (eye roll). In Love Actually she may as well have been credited as “nameless ingénue.” Additionally there is this <sarcasm> completely empowering </sarcasm>, Cinemax-exclusive threesome scene from The Hole.
It’s pretty clear Keira Knightley is a hypocrite. If not for the sum of her roles, then at least for taking the title literally in The Hole.
Speaking of the hole, perhaps she should have kept her hole shut? Glass houses, Keira, glass houses.