Keira Knightley covers the new issue of Violet, although I’m pretty sure this photoshoot was done MONTHS ago. Probably last year. Because Keira is super-pregnant these days and these photos show her tiny little waist. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Keira had a big baby announcement in the next week or so. Her due date is likely any day now. As for the interview, Keira had some interesting things to say about feminism and female characters and woman-oriented storytelling. She talked a lot about all of that throughout the promotional tour for The Imitation Game – it’s her cause, and it’s a good cause to have. We need younger actresses openly discussing the fact that Hollywood needs to refocus and have more stories for, by and starring women.
Women in film: “Where are the female stories? Where are they? Where are the directors, where are the writers? It’s imbalanced, so given that we are half the cinema-going public, we are half the people [who] watch drama or watch anything else, where is that? So yes, I think the pay is a huge thing, but I’m actually more concerned over the lack of our voices being heard.”
Feminism: “I don’t know what happened through the ’80s,’90s, and ’00s that took feminism off the table, that made it something that women weren’t supposed to identify with and were supposed to be ashamed of. Feminism is about the fight for equality between the sexes, with equal respect, equal pay, and equal opportunity. At the moment we are still a long way off that.”
Playing Joan Clarke in The Imitation Game: “I think it is interesting that for women in film the problems they face are generally put into the sphere of home and family and not into the workplace. Joan’s real struggles were to get her rightful ‘place at the table,’ and then once she was there, equal pay, which she never came close to.”
I like that Keira manages to discuss feminism and woman-centered storytelling without it coming across like… Patricia Arquette. You know? Bless Arquette for putting her views out there and starting a conversation about equal pay in the middle of the Oscars, but Arquette’s wording and phrasing alienated a lot of potential allies. Keira’s comments seem to be a reflection of the need for more women – of all colors and sexual orientations – to be brought into the storytelling fold.
Photos courtesy of WENN, Violet.
Go Keira! Nothing more to say.
Perhaps her face has been photoshopped because you can see her pregnancy belly in the full body picture.
Re her comments on feminism, amen. Nothing to add.
Finally, a celebrity who knows what she’s talking about. What happened that feminism took a back seat?
Feminism was “still around” for half of the 90s, but started to drop off the public’s consciousness around the new millenia. I personally saw a trend toward women wanting to be the glamorous trophy and shunning feminism, and anything closely related to it. I still cannot believe the onslaught of pink/purple merchandise and everything princess for girls that just did not exist in the 90s.
I agree with her also. So many young women think feminism is a dead concept, that they don’t need it anymore or that feminism means they can wear anything they want and act anyway they want and not have anyone judge them for it or take them less seriously for how they act.
The feminism I grew up with in the 60s, 70s and 80s was all about being treated as an equal partner, not being judged by our looks but by our brains, not being treated as sex objects. I have long wondered how willfully being sexualized is seen as feminism today? I get the argument, that if a woman chooses to use her body to make her fortune (like the Sports Illustrated models do) then that is her choice, and, thus, feminism, and I know I will get grief for this, but really, this wasn’t feminism as defined by Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan, etc. It was being seen as a man’s equal.
I grew to really like Keira. I believe that Patricia’s intentions where pure and I think I know where she was coming from with her comments, but she made a mistake of trying to sound wiser by adding too many unnecessary words and mental shortcuts to her speech and she got lost in her own thought-process. Keira is simply way more articulate and able to translate her thoughts into words in a clearer and simpler fashion. It makes her recent interviews very enjoyable to read. It’s wonderful that lately so many women (and men) want to discuss this subject and I hope it will initiate a such needed change.
I like everything you said.
Yes to everything.
Well said.
I agree completely.
You know how some celebrities just shouldn’t talk off script? Keira is the opposite of that- with every interview, I like her more and more.
Me too. Not a fan of her acting, but the more I hear from her, the more I like her.
Cool chick.
I saw a very long interview she did (don’t remember the source) and was blown away. She was extremely articulate, intelligent and knowledgeable. It was quite refreshing.
I love the way she distills it into something that sounds simple and common sense – WHICH IT IS.
And I love that she can see the absence of women’s stories is more important than how much the 0.1% of women earn, even though it’s true earning should be equal. (PS: they should make Sally Wainwright a dame, just for this reason).
Common sense is exactly what she demonstrates. I wish she could share that with several others, but then, we would have fewer targets for snark.
Agreed, common sense and a little structure is what we need now.
I love how retro the cover looks, it has the look of a vintage magazine. It makes me realize how timeless her look is. And I love what she said, she speaks the truth directly and eloquently.
if Keira could carry a sign at a fashion she could have been in the top feminists list from a couple of days ago.
Hah! Well she does meet the qualifications: rich, white, celebrity, long legs.
“Arquette’s wording and phrasing alienated a lot of potential allies” – I’m sorry, but if allies are that easily alienated, then they were probably not such great allies to begin with. What Patricia said was perhaps controversial, but it was not anywhere near the level of ignorance and contempt often displayed towards minority groups by bigots. If people can’t look past it and shy away from a feminist fight because of it, they were merely looking for an excuse to drop the cause, IMO.
so you are now using the hurt caused by her words as a sign that minorities dont care about the cause? who do you think is more affected by it? a famous white millionaire or a black single mother? you make it sound like everyone stopped being a feminsit because of her. she was merely called out on being ignorant and offensive.
maybe just maybe PoC are sick of white women making feminism all about them. white women will have to learn to include and apologize when they make mistakes that offend.
Amen.
Amazing how as soon as it’s “Oh you’re not with us? Well you’re against then and we don’t need you.”
Well gee, how could we have ever had doubts or concern with that level of support and loyalty? Smh.
Amy,
support and loyalty go both ways. If you drop out of a cause that easily, why do you expect the cause to be loyal and supportive to you?
Kara, I think you’re responding to some other imaginary comment, not mine.
Arquette’s comments were about all minorities, not just women of color. Her comments were also, from what I remember, about gay men, for example.
You’re taking her comments and my comment and twisting it into a white women vs. black women issue because it’s easier to attack.
I don’t make it sound like everyone stopped being a feminist because of her. I make it sound like those who stopped being a feminist because of her were probably not particularly dedicated to the cause to begin with, or were already plenty disillusioned with it before Arquette.
No one stopped being a feminist because of Patricia, but many saw her speech for the same non-inclusive ideal that has been repeated many times in the past. It’s not enough to simply talk about working together when it’s clear no attention has been paid to the issues that made some minority women leave the cause. Black, Asian, and Latina women are still women. They do not exist on a separate plain but they do face unique issues not always properly represented.
After multiple times having their issues pushed to the back burner they do not simply need a rousing speech but some proof that they will actually be treated equally. This is not a new issue but something that has been happening since the days of Sufragettes. You’re absolutely correct, support and loyalty do go both ways. Which is why so many of us who have been disappointed and abandoned first and repeatedly did not fall over ourselves for Arquette’s speech from her ivory tower.
My feminism will be inclusive and intersectional or it will be bullshit
Thank and Amen.
Amen.
High-Five!
Not sure what it has to do with my comment either.
Your feminism can be whatever it wants to be.
And you can educate Arquette all you want.
But if you heard Arquette and said “well, that’s it, I’m done being a feminist”, then you no longer have any feminism, intersectional or not.
I was not speaking about people who think that she was wrong and that we could stand to be more inclusive. I was speaking about “potential allies” who were “alienated” by her comments. Not about passionate feminists who took her to task for a restrictive view of feminism, or whatever. And I think this distinction was pretty clear in my original post. Feels like some people are just in too much of a hurry to proclaim how their feminism is better and more enlightened than everyone else’s.
This ^^^ as is mine. F*ck the whitewash and gender BS spewed by so many. Mine broad and inclusive. Period.
Timbuktu, this also goes for your other comment above: again NO ONE stopped being a feminist because of Arquette, i dont know where you take that from.
people, especially PoC are simply sick of white women making all feminism about themselves while being the most privileged women in the world.
to put it into perspective a straight white wealthy and famous woman just told millions of minorities to help out her fellow straight white women and not complain about their own struggles. she made it sound like all other problems were solved and there was enough focus on other oppressed groups. thats what offended people.
people were done with Arquette for showing her true colors, why would anyone stop being a feminist?
you build up a strawman and now attack it but thats never what its been about.
I remember reading a bunch of posts some black women wrote about feeling used by the feminist movement. I as a black woman remember feeling like that was ridiculous, but as time goes on a lot if what they were writing makes sense.
When they call us ‘allies’, they put us on the periphery.
Did they ask their black maids about the work-life balance while paying them nothing, or did these gilded minds think they invented it in 1962? Did they demand that these women, who were far worse off than themselves give even more? What did they give back, then? Now, did they speak for Rekia Boyd and the countless other black women who have faced this kind of brutality? No, they were bitching about a mani-cam, like, who gives a flying fuck? If the only time you pay attention is to scold me, feel free to never bother me again–or ideally–be the ally that you demand we must be.
I like what Knightley has to say here because that Oscar accusation-a-thon was asinine and perfectly illustrated why so many black women are fed up with the face of the movement, which can’t seem seem to turn away from the mirror until it’s time to shout at the girl for not cleaning it enough. It’s not that people are looking for any to disavow feminist principles, it’s that mainstream feminism is always finding reasons to alienate and disown their purported ‘allies’ and play martyr when people decide they don’t feel like being the perpetual handmaid. I think we’ve had enough centuries of that.
I’m a proud womanist and if I hear one more self-obsessed mainstreamer say that that indicates that I am creating divisions: see lake, go jump.
Please re-read Jo ‘Mama’ Besser comment. Perhaps you weren’t listening as closely or don’t know the history but let’s agree to disagree. When people don’t SEE you as their EQUAL but you ASSUME they do then YOU need to EDUCATE yourself. Please make sure you read about.
Ain’t I a woman? Sojourner Truth
Allies are not slaves.
If you insult them, corral them off into verbal pens, and exclude them they do not wait at your feet for your next instruction. They move on and work for their own needs and goals. The history of feminism also includes several chapters on the using and ignoring of minority women while using them to bolster numbers and presence.
No respect was paid to goals minority women wanted to achieve and when there was disagreements minority women were ignored. So they moved on and formed feminist movements that were actually working to help achieve some of their goals. Then a woman gives a speech demanding we all rejoin and work together to achieve a goal…but funny, she ends up using the same exclusive language and demonstrating the same prideful ignorance that drove women off in the first place.
Slap me once, shame on you. Slap me twice…
Truth.
You know, as a WOC, I am tired of white, cis, middle-class women going “Me, me! Feminism for me! Oh, a POC/WOC? Erm… what? *ignore*”
(Insert stats on how WOC get paid even less than white women)
Now granted, I don’t think we need white women to do it for us but jesus, let’s work together on this.
Allies are not fickle high school crushes either, who only stick around as long as you seem perfect and run away as soon as you get a zit.
Allies are friends. Friends forgive, talk it out, mutually educate, etc.
If you run away the first time you friend says something you don’t like, then it was not friendship to begin with, I stand by that statement.
mazzie,
I’m sorry, but could you please name me multiple instances where white middle class women re going “me, me, feminism for me, what? ignore WOC”? Because I have literally never ever seen that attitude in m whole life.
Every class I took that dealt with feminism talked about the plight of black women and how it’s even harder for them to be successful.
Every white woman I know feels at worst that we’re all in it together, at beast – that white women shouldn’t even complain when it’s so much harder for black women.
Your comment sounds like confirmation bias to me. I’m sure there are SOME ignorant white women like that out there, but first, I doubt those are middle-class women, and second, I don’t believe that there are a lot more of such women than there are of kind women who think that ALL women deserve better .
Also, stats on WOC getting paid less than white women don’t mean much unless white women get paid more doing THE SAME JOB. Otherwise, it’s a larger economic issue of minorities doing more low-wage jobs, which is also a big issue, but it has little to do with feminism.
Who told you it was the first time? It’s not
@timbuktu Hmm.. Caitlin Morna, Patricia Arquette…
Also, why are you asking me to prove something to you that’s based on my personal experiences? Is it that you think I need to provide actual data to you on this because my experience aren’t enough to help form my own opinion and are therefore not worthy of your consideration?
Fyi, this? The attempt at negating my experience? This is one of things WOC have to deal with.
Lol, Timbuktu based on your ‘first time’ comment I suspect you don’t quite know the history of your feminism and its treatment of ‘other’ women quite as well as you think. This would more so be the thousandth time on a larger scale and the millionth on the more minor issues.
This is what many were disappointed in Patricia’s speech for. There’s no acknowledgement of the mistakes of the past, there’s no effort on the part of the guilty to rectify, there’s no mention of the issues that divide us. Just lecturing disguised as rallying with no education on Patricia’s part behind it. When given an opportunity to clarify and be more supportive and inclusive she instead doubled down on the divisive language.
Team Arquette. I like what Keira said, but we need both kinds of action, the soft spoken like Keira and the loud inyerface like P. Arquette.
+1000
Meh. Less talk, more action. You want a feminist hero? Reese Witherspoon. She put her money where her mouth is and started producing films.
I love your name, Lila Fowler, and ITA with your post.
for white women.
also a woman who uses “do you know who i am” to a police officer who was simply doing his job is not exactly a good role model, she does not come across as if she believes in equality. unless you are white and rich of course.
It starts with white women and then the feminism trickles down to the rest of us.
It’s a trickle down feminism theory.
See Reese will make her movies and then I’m…well the inspiration of Reese will help someone else make her movies and then like…years down women of other races will make their movies. Uh…yeah.
I’m not disagreeing with your points, but I don’t understand how Reese’s feminism is more privileged than Keira’s? I don’t know much about her, but she’s a posh Brit with a stylishly slender look who AFIK has not yet been actively involved in expanding roles for women. No criticism of Keira intended. She’s certainly less offensive in her behavior than Reese but I don’t understand why Reese’s feminism is privileged and Keira’s isn’t.
@bettyrose – probably just because people who comment on this site tend to like Keira and not so much Reese.
And before everyone goes nuts, I feel the same way, I like Keira and therefore tend to look favourably on her views, Reese sets my teeth on edge a bit so I feel differently.
This is a gender issue. I feel sorry for people like you, who make every single thing about race. Enjoy your long, miserable life.
it is not just a gender issue, white women make more money than PoC.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/29/wage-gap-african-american-women-infographic_n_2568838.html
Reese is not exactly known as helping PoC gain a better representation. she is doing stuff for other white women, why would mentioning that get you so mad?
how would you react if a man told you “i feel sorry for people like you, who make every single thing about gender?”
i hope this example makes clear what you are saying.
I feel like this goes back to the list ranking feminists the other day – why compare and pit them against each other? Why not be happy that there’s a famous actress out there intelligently speaking about it, AND another producing and creating work for herself?
Why would someone be happy with being accused of hurting the cause whenever she expresses self-interest. It’s patronizing and gaslighting and always gets back to real concern, self-negation by some to make others comfortable. You know how you love it when men belittle and dismiss your experience and accuse you of just being a man-hater with no point? Imagine getting that twice over and the second time it comes from your alleged allies. Why is it standing up for your rights when some speak and then causing divisions when others do? Do people seriously not see how mainstream feminism does so much of the same crap to minorities as anything else coming out of this culture? It’s white supremacist culture, of course that’s going influence the movement, just like patriarchy hangs over everything, but there is the push to deny, deny, deny. When someone brings it up, that person is without exception either treated as a destructive malcontent (who should be ignored), or a child throwing a temper tantrum (who should be ignored).
“Do people seriously not see how mainstream feminism does so much of the same crap to minorities as anything else coming out of this culture? ”
+1
thank you!
“but there is the push to deny, deny, deny. When someone brings it up, that person is without exception either treated as a destructive malcontent (who should be ignored), or a child throwing a temper tantrum (who should be ignored). ”
see the comment from lila fowler.
I see it, I’ve seen it before.
…” “I don’t know what happened through the ’80s,’90s, and ’00s “…
It was carefully derailed and substituted with pseudo- discussions.
And everybody was distancing himself from something and there was “right” and “wrong” feminism. And women were screaming at the top of their voices….at one another instead of banging their fists on men’s door for that …”equality between the sexes, with equal respect, equal pay, and equal opportunity.”
It does seem that womens issues and conversation shifted in the 80s. I wonder if it was a cultural shift brought on in the 80s by the conservative Reagan era, which then carried over to the 90s and 00s. Did women feel complacency after a certain level of achievement in the 70s?
Or was feminism hampered by the fact that most women are too busy surviving to try to thrive? I wasn’t working yet in the 80s but I remember then the image of the women in bow ties striding to work on their sneakers and thought women wgoing ing to be equal players in the world. But going to work, I discovered how hard it is to climb the corporate ladder. it’s not harder than working at home per se, but it’s different and not easy. And i would say this is the same for men too, but of course women do still face subtle degrees of sexism. Add to that the inherent conflicts involved for women who are married and raise children, and all the other stuff that women face, and i think many women lost the will to push for their rights in the workplace.
This doesn’t really explain why young women today- who haven’t experienced the work world yet- think feminism is a dirty word. Maybe they are those who think there’s no need to fight anymore.
That’s an interesting perspective which I think is also true. When you’re just trying to hang on and survive it’s not easy to thrive. The corporate world favors men and while it can evolve to be more respectful and cohesive it will always favor the individual who can give the most of their time with the least amount of drawbacks.
Women have to deny parts of themselves if they want financial and business success. I think this is why we’ve seen such a strong surge of the female entrepreneur, because women want the money and structure of a company but they also want the freedom and control that comes from running it themselves. When a company starts from the top down with a woman it’s more likely to be shaped to be more supportive to all individual’s needs.
I think that could be part of it – it’s a hard fight, and I think as it gets easier, we tend to fight less. Look at the young actresses like Kaley Cuoco who dismiss it because they only experience the benefits and don’t understand the struggle.
But I also think that because it started to work, some men (and probably some women) got threatened by that, and pushed back to try to change the meaning of the word and the movement. Sadly, to an extent, it worked.
The other day on a finance website I saw an article about how the head of GM will end an “important meeting” to go to her kids’ soccer game. I have never seen an article like that about a male CEO, even though there are probably lots of them who manage to balance work and family life and attend their kids events.
I think that as soon as the women got the right to work without “permission” and have an own bank account the drawing of some front line has begun. It seems to me there are us vs. them in every aspect of life. Working women vs.housewives, working mothers vs.SAHMs, full time Jobs vs.part-time. And the women still feel compelled to explain their choice as if they don’t have the right to choose at all!
I’ve never thought about myself as” not equal”. Now that I live in rural Bayern I think twice before I confess I like cooking GASP! And not gardening but ironing is my zen-time. It’s SO 50s’ you know.
There is a sort of “approved” Image of feminism, which I find narrow and everything outside it cannot be “equal” and I see women to jump into the trenches for side issues ignoring what (in my opinion) really matters.
Last week the german bundesministerin for “Family, women, ets.ets” gave a Tv interview with some hard facts about disparity between men and women. Actual state:22% less for the same Job. Perceived difference :2%
You see for me this is an important problem. BUT it got no hashtag, no outcry, no nothing.
The new bill that she’s backing in the Bundestag, which will allow transparency how the wages are set up and why……you get the picture. Instead everybody was praising a schoolgirl, who glued sanitary pads on the street lamps with feminist slogans. Because that’s potentialy game changer i guess. Not that such actions don’t get their place but I often think the society discourse is steered towards the “show” instead of letting it focus on legislation for example
And yes I think women become complaisant after the first success and stopped paying close attention to the general picture. I thought that international News about shcool rights for girls (in Pakistan for example) ot the fight od Indian women against rampant rapist trends will shake things up but I hear among my friends more about some reality shows or 50 Shades! than about potentially uncomfortable subjects. We are lulled in our comforts and rights and take them so for granted as if they are not only a couple of decades old. Frightening.
There is a lack of great female-driven story lines in movies unless comedies.
I think one of the problems is women scream about having more of these stories.. YET when they are released the same women don’t support them. We talk about female directors/writers.. yet again their projects are not supported. We get “I’m not seeing this because a woman directed it or wrote it”.. OR.. she only got to do this or that because she screwed some guy (yeah those comments still get posted).
But these same people..well they flock to any male driven movie good or bad. Putting their money out there to support those films.. so more and more of them get made.
Women will be heard when they put their money where their mouths are. That is how you make this kind of change. Let the Hollywood heads see the money rolling in. Then you will get more of these films and women will get better roles and payment.
not that complicated. A lot of this is not in the control of women.. but where you put you funds and what films you support… well that is.
She looks absolutely lovely in those pictures, I agree with whomever said there was a vintage quality to her styling in these photos.
She said just enough without saying too much. I think framing any issue as ‘trickle down’ doesn’t work much for public support. From the bottom up is better. If average women felt they were appreciated by society and considered equals many things in the world would change to enhance their lives. This would only grow more as studios would invest in women’s stories, women directors, and treating their actresses with respect. I also think something happened which changed the conversation on feminism and its a multi-level issue. I think the conversation needs some structure today and people need to keep reminding the general public what the goals of feminism are regarding our government and our workforce.
I was just starting my career in the early 80s and in those days I really believed that the fight was over. Obvious, overt discrimination was officially out. What I didn’t realize was the subtle. A very good analogy I heard recently was that there are no longer glass ceilings, just glass walls around the most lucrative and desirable positions and departments in corporate America. You can easily be the head of certain departments, just not the most lucrative ones. And when you do see women CEO’s put into a large publically traded company it is only after the company is already circling the drain and it will take heroic effort to have it survive, much less thrive. (ie yahoo, avon and several others in recent memory)
oops dreaded double post. please delete
There’s nothing I love more than seeing misogynist f*ckboys (because they’re not even close to being men) having meltdowns over finding out that beautiful women like Keira, Beyoncé and Emma Watson call themselves feminists. I. Love. It.
Recently found out that a job I work at was paying my male counterpart more than me, even though we did the same work and I had more experience. Well, I promptly raised hell and long story short, I got a raise and a promotion.
Good for you. Congrats.
Pay equality is a hard topic for me. I get the argument’s basic simplicity that men and women should be paid the same for the same work, but the argument is really so much more complex than that. It’s not just two people filling the same position with the same job description, but how productive each person is. And that’s not just a distinction between men and women, but men and men and women and women. Lots of things go in determining a person’s pay scale; education, skill sets, productivity level, attitude, reliability, etc… No one is ever equal on all of these things. It’s like two people making a chocolate cake with different measurements, different ingredients, baked at different temperatures for different lengths of time and expecting to get two cakes that taste exactly the same. It doesn’t work that way. There are women in my department who have the same job title, same level of experience, but they are slow, often absent, goof-off a lot, gossip, not as productive….and I make more money than they do (as well I should).
And when you add in ageism, especially for women in Hollywood but even I’ve experienced it, its a LOT worse for women.
I wish feminism hadn’t become a dirty word.