Celebs

Keira Knightley uit harde kritiek op Kate Middletons post-baby verschijning

Lise Milbou Lifestylejournalist

Lifestylejournalist 10 okt 2018

The Weaker Sex, zo heet het feministisch essay dat Keira Knightley onlangs voor het reeksje Feminists Don’t Wear Pink (And Other Lies) schreef. Ze haalt in haar opiniestuk fel uit naar het piekfijne uiterlijk van Kate Middleton een paar uur na de bevalling. De perfect gekapte lokken en flawless make-up van de Duchess bevielen de actrice duidelijk niet...

“And I am the weaker sex?”

Actrice Keira Knightley beviel zelf van een dochtertje, Edie, de dag voordat prinses Charlotte geboren werd. Ze heeft dan ook flink wat kritiek op hoe Kate Middleton vlak na haar bevalling verscheen:

“We stand and watch the TV screen. She was out of hospital seven hours later with her face made up and high heels on. The face the world wants to see. Hide. Hide our pain, our bodies splitting, our breasts leaking, our hormones raging. Look beautiful, look stylish, don’t show your battleground, Kate. Seven hours after your fight with life and death, seven hours after your body breaks open, and bloody, screaming life comes out. Don’t show. Don’t tell. Stand there with your girl and be shot by a pack of male photographers.”

Kate Middleton en prins William meteen na de geboorte van Louis Arthur Charles.

Keira Knightley strijdt met haar essay tegen de druk die op kersverse moeders wordt gelegd om er de dag van de bevalling meteen weer vlekkeloos uit te zien. Keira heeft immers zelf een héél andere ervaring:

“My vagina split. You came out with your eyes open. Arms up in the air. Screaming. They put you on to me, covered in blood, vernix, your head misshapen from the birth canal. Pulsating, gasping, screaming. You latched on to my breast immediately, hungrily, I remember the pain. The mouth clenched tight around my nipple, light sucking on and sucking out. I remember the s—, the vomit, the blood, the stitches. I remember my battleground. Your battleground and life pulsating. Surviving. And I am the weaker sex?”

Kate Middleton en prins William meteen na de geboorte van George.

Daarnaast merkt de actrice op dat het ouderschap op de filmset heel anders is voor mannen. Keira heeft het over een dubbele standaard die nog steeds geldt in Hollywood:

‘I turn up on time, word perfect, with ideas and an opinion. I am up with you [haar dochter, red.] all night if you need me. Sometimes I cry I’m so tired. Up with you all night and work all day... My male colleagues can be late, can not know their lines. They can shout and scream and throw things. They can turn up drunk or not turn up at all. They don’t see their children. They’re working. They need to concentrate.’

Ook haalt Keira nog eens stevig uit naar het gedrag van haar mannelijke tegenspelers:

‘I work with men. I watch them and they watch me. They worry that I don’t like them. It drives them mad. They belittle me, they try not to listen to me, they don’t talk to me, they don’t want to hear my voice, my experience, my opinion.”Be pretty. Stand there. Tell me what it is to be a woman. Be nice, be supportive, be pretty but not too pretty, be thin but not too thin, be sexy but not too sexy. Be successful but not too successful. Wear these clothes, look this way, buy this stuff.” I work with men and they worry that I don’t like them. It makes them mad, it makes them sad, it makes them shout and scream. I like them. But I don’t want to flirt and mother them... I don’t want to flirt with you because I don’t want to fuck you, and I don’t want to mother you because I am not your mother.’

Een duidelijk boodschap in tijden van #metoo...