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Do we imbibe the values, ethics, and assumptions of the popular art we consume so unwittingly and uncritically that it’s as if we’re empty vessels waiting to be filled? Can children not watch Cinderella without internalizing society’s misogyny? Can adults not read an opinionated article without having their brains scooped out and replaced with the views of the author? I’m not denying the capacity for forms of art, for stories, to influence us. Knightley, however, isn’t, and her position is characteristic of much of the social-justice left.
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While we’re at it, scrap the Borrowers too, another set of problem thieves. Aladdin? An incessant shoplifter who uses monkeys as accomplices - hardly the best example for the impressionable young ( Tangled also features a thief: Flynn Rider). If we’re in the habit of curating our kids’ films in an effort to craft their personalities, why not do away with Toy Story? Both of the chief protagonists are self-important, deluded idiots until the final act. Males are almost always the villains in any story-and so by definition are bad role models. The task would be gargantuan even for parents of boys, let alone girls. This is an approach that borders on the absurd. Because that is what they fundamentally are-not dismissive, malicious, or shameful, but suboptimal. The problem arises when this mutates into a puritanical drive to mastermind the viewing habits of children, cleansing their media diets from any suboptimal portrayals of their race, class, sexuality or gender. There is nothing wrong with wanting deeper, more interesting female protagonists. A brief glance at leading female characters in older children’s stories shows a far less varied and developed cast than when compared to their male counterparts. Her response is typical of the new drive among some parents - and Disney executives - to move the portrayal of women on from the “damsel in distress” trope so evident in traditional storytelling. As is Knightley, although she doesn’t realize it. I am, of course, taking this far too seriously. Would Knightley tell a vulnerable woman in that position to “rescue herself” if it were happening in real life and not a child’s film? I highly doubt it.
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Cinderella would likely have no access to cash or transport, and might even find things harder out in the world she had been isolated from for so many years. She is forced to tend to their every need and locked away in a tower at her wicked family’s convenience. Now - without sounding deliciously smug - isn’t this (in the parlance of the modern left) a classic case of victim-blaming? Cinderella, a young woman-in some versions, a teenager-lives under the tyrannical regime of her abusive stepmother and stepsisters. I love The Little Mermaid! That one’s a little tricky - but I’m keeping to it.Ĭinderella is also on the blacklist because she “waits around for a rich guy to rescue her,” says Knightley. Hello!… And this is the one that I’m quite annoyed about because I really like the film. I mean, the songs are great, but do not give your voice up for a man. Both, apparently, because of their poor representations of women. Two she explicitly forbids are Disney favorites Cinderella and The Little Mermaid. On a recent episode of the The Ellen DeGeneres Show, the actress Keira Knightley talked about the films she allows her 3-year-old daughter to watch at home.