I was delighted when I came across this statement photograph of Keira Knightly exposing her breasts. For years she has expressed annoyance towards her breasts being Photo-shopphed in posters for her films and fashion shoots.
This was the for this image caption : I will shoot for you completely topless. I wish to boost any flat chested woman’s confidence” told Keira Knightley to the magazine. “My breast is imperfect and I want women to see that”.
What a wonderful feminist role model! Its wonderful to have a female celebrity who isn’t superficial. Someone who is vocally and demonstratively expressive of her distain for the modification of her body. – And how brave to stand up and reveal her body in order for the rest of the female population on this earth to be comforted by the fact that, you know what? – she is just human like the rest of us.
Yes – she’s stunning, classy and has beautiful facial features. Keria Knightly is not the object of mainstream “perfection”. In truth nobody is.
Most celebrities, like Megan Fox, Nicole Kidman, Kim Kardashian and Nicki Minaj have gone through cosmetic operations to look how they do. Most photographs for fashion adds, ARE photoshopped. These women have professional stylists who tend to their; hair, make-up and eyebrows , Emma Watson admits ” I do not wake up like this”
If every woman had professional stylists we’d all look like celebrities. In conjunction with this knowledge this photo is made even more wonderful by the fact that one of Keira’s breasts is clearly, bigger than the other. With all the money she has she has not had surgery to correct this. – How down to earth. I think she’s a wonderful role model.
It also challenges all the awful backlashes that Jennifer Lawrence and Emma Watson received after standing up for feminism. Jennifer Lawrence’s private nude photos were exposed on misogynistic forums such as 4Chan. After Emma Watson’s speech at the UN on feminism meaning, equality for men and women she was threatened by the same internet trolls that they would expose her nudes too. There are numerous examples on twitter of people who threatened her. Knightly combats this with SHOWING her body. She is a step ahead of the game.
I’m very angry about 4chan exposing naked pictures of female celebrities in punishment for them speaking out for feminism, as if to put them in their place. The images that you choose to take of yourself in your private life have NO correlation to your stance on feminism. If you are seen as a good role model whose classy, elegant, sophisticated and intelligent you are made a target because you are seen as a threat to those who believe that women should merely exist to satisfy men. This is SHAMEFUL.
There is so much hate for feminism and it kills me. Feminism means equality for all genders, in truth most people are feminists. The word has so much stigmatism attached to it that most of society associate it with unfriendly, aggressive, butch women. It does not help that celebrities like Jennifer Anniston say “I believe in equal rights but I’m not a feminist” its seen as NOT ATTRACTIVE and this is the problem! We want the approval of men! Katy Perry says “I’m not a feminist but I do believe in the strength of women”. I’m very furious with Bjork and Lady Gaga there material is seen as ground breaking and controversial.
Lady Gaga is famous for standing up for gay rights, being who you want to be and yet does not give women the same credit. “I’m not a feminist,I hail men, I love men, I celebrate American male culture – beer, bars, and muscle cars.” This implies that Feminism is about men vs women! It is NOT! It is about finding peace between the sexes.
To me a woman saying she’s not a feminist is JUST like a gay person saying they are a homophobe.
Joss Whedon the writer of Buffy the vampire slayer has theorised that feminism sounds like a choice because the word ends in an ist. For example Buddhist, Nudist, Baptist – these are words that we associate with making a choice to incarnate that identity with. It should not be a choice and for most people its already a belief that we should be equal. Whedon thinks that this word needs to be changed to something else, because of the negative connotations associated with it. Other feminists argue that we need to reclaim the word. I’m on the fence with this one….I am very tired of people cowering away from me when I tell them that I am a feminist. However I power through this because it IS what a Believe. Similarly Madonna has stated “I am not a feminist, I am a humanist”
I believe that the truth of the matter is that most celebrities are too afraid to identify themselves with feminism because of the negative connotations that are associated with it. Now so more than ever due to all the drama on 4chan. But we need MORE women like Keria Knightly who have the balls…no not balls, BREASTS to stand up and make a statement about this.
SO….why is feminism so important?
Most young women have been victims of male misognystic behaviour, some of them not even recognising this for what it is. We are not educated in schools about healthy sexual relationships with partners. We are pushed out into the world with nothing to prepare us for how some men think they have the right to us. It is BECAUSE of the lack of education that some of us believe that how they want to treat us is right. None has told us any different. For lots of women feel that they won’t be good enough for their partner if they do not offer them anal sex, a fantasy that has been encouraged by the porn industry. (The representation of which is neither safe or realistic).
And you know WHY? Its because we still want the approval of men. For me being a feminist means as I have previously stated, equal rights for men and women and the idea that your aspirations and dreams lie further a-field than finding a man and satisfying him to his hearts content.
For lots of girls, myself included – before you are mistreated by a man you will not associate yourself too strongly with being a feminist. It is a sad state of affairs that for most girls they have to experience misogyny at its worst for them to stand up and say, “You know what I am a feminist too”.
I want a career, of course I do and maybe one day I would like children. If I do I wish to educate them so thoroughly on healthy relationships, accepting your body as it is. JUST LIKE Keira Knightly does.
Feminism means so much to me, as not only have I been effected by the worst kinds of misogynistic behaviour so have many of my friends and family. It only continues with our consent. With our wish to not seem unattractive and undesirable but here in lies the problem.
I want to be part of a movement that combats this. Stand up with me today and say your a feminist too. Yes men too! Everyone could be a feminist as a means towards equality
ecmurrayreflects 
Hello Emily; congratulations on your new blog. It’s good to see Ernie on-line, too (for other readers, Ernie is the big white dog in the banner photo’).
It’s a sad truth that ‘feminism’ has become in part a battle-ground over the few decades since its inception. I have enclosed the word in quotes because it means very different things to different people. You are absolutely right that most people, whatever their gender identity, are spontaneously feminist in the most widely accepted sense of that embattled word, in that they support women’s rights and equality of women in society. By this definition, there are many people who are indeed feminists even though they may deny it themselves.
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