– In case you missed the last post on ONTD, Keira Knightley said during an interview on
Ellen in promoting her upcoming film
The Nutcracker and the Four Realms she doesn't allow her three year old tiny toddler daughter to watch older Disney films like
Cinderella and
The Little Mermaid. Keira is a vocal supporter of
#MeToo and
condemned the use of sexual assault of women as motivation for characters and backstory earlier this year.
– Knightley said she likes The Little Mermaid and thinks it has great songs, but she doesn't think it's a good message to send to young girls.“Do not give your voice up for a man!” Knightley said, which prompted dozens of the same comments saying Ariel wanted to a human first, while still ignoring that she does, in fact, give up her voice to be with a man she hardly knows. With
Cinderella, Knightley said,
“She waits around for a rich guy to rescue her. Don’t. Rescue yourself — obviously.” Knightley lets her daughter watch Disney films like
Frozen and
Moana.– Since criticizing gender stereotypes in a Disney animated film written, animated, and produced by men is unthinkable, people flipped out about Knightley's comment, many on twitter and here calling her stupid, saying she wasn't properly parenting her child, and even accusing her of not caring about women, female characters and abuse survivors for critiquing Cinderella, which was based on a fictional not real story and fairy tale recorded by Italian writer Giambattista Basile in 1634, originally descending from
the Egyptian story Rhodopis written down by greek geographer Strabo in 64 BC, about a blonde, fair-skinned young woman sold into slavery who loses her slippers to a flock of birds which then drop the slippers into the lap of an Egyptian King, so he declares a search for the woman whose feet fit the slippers and whoever she is will be his wife because it was a sign from the sun god Horus. Like Cinderella's evil step-sisters, as with many fairy tales, the only other women mentioned in the story (besides dead mothers and wicked older women and sometimes fairies) are jealous Egyptian girls who say she doesn't deserve it.
– Coincidentally, at the same time, Kristen Bell said in an interview with Parents magazine she loves reading stories to her kids and then discussing them – including the problems with old Disney animated films:"Every time we close Snow White I look at my girls and ask, 'Don't you think it's weird that Snow White didn't ask the old witch why she needed to eat the apple? Or where she got that apple?' I say, 'I would never take food from a stranger, would you?' And my kids are like, 'No!' And I'm like, 'Okay, I'm doing something right.'" Bell also says that she's asked her daughters,
"Don't you think that it's weird that the prince kisses Snow White without her permission? Because you can not kiss someone if they're sleeping!"– Bell is working on a children's book and says the process and reading stuff with her kids has helped her appreciate how far children's literature has come:"There's a book called Grumpy Monkey that we love that allows the monkey to be grumpy, even at the end. Other characters give him solutions but he decides he's still grumpy. I've had that feeling, and I want my girls to know that you're allowed to feel it. Figure out ways to pick yourself up when you are ready. I really like that message."– A list of things that also happened in the year 1950 when Cinderella was released:The Korean war began when North Korea invaded South Korea, President Truman signed the Act of Guam which made the island territory a United States one, who also faced an assassination attempt by Puerto Rican nationalists, India ratified its new constitution, China tried to invade Tibet in the Battle of Chamdo, the Warsaw pact was formed in response to NATO, Senator McCarthy initiated the persecution of Communists in the United States, Tom Petty, Stevie Wonder, and Jay Leno were all born, Winston Churchill lost a UK election, and the first ever TV remote was sold to the public.
ONTD, what are some lessons you've had to unlearn from stuff you watched as a kid? And what are some stories you would show to your current/future/hypothetical children and why?Sources:123456789101112
