Natalie Portman wants her children to defy gender stereotypes.
Natalie Portman
The 39-year-old actress has given a new twist on three classic tales in her book ‘Natalie Portman’s Fables’ and explained how the tome was inspired by the way she used to change pronouns in the stories she told Aleph, nine, and four-year-old Amalia – who she has with husband Benjamin Millepied – because she was tired of how they didn’t reflect the world.
She said: “I found myself changing the pronouns in many of their books because so many of them had overwhelmingly male characters, disproportionate to reality.
“All books and movies should be reflective of the world, rather than have this kind of skewed gender assignment.
“Boys need to see that women have a multitude of opportunities open to them, to consider what they think and feel, and how they experience the world.
“[In films and books] women don’t just need to be bad-ass warriors or fierce and confident.
“We also need characters who have self doubt, who make mistakes, because we all mess up, we’re human.”
And Natalie insisted just praising women isn’t helpful either.
She added: “So many people say things like ‘Women are stronger and better leaders’ and think they’re making a feminist statement.
“But it’s limiting for a woman, for anyone, to be put on a pedestal.
“As Ruth Bader Ginsburg said, ‘A pedestal is just another kind of cage.’ “
When it came to the language of the book, the ‘Black Swan’ actress knew exactly what would make kids laugh.
She told HELLO! magazine: “I wrote it for [my children]. They were the first readers of my work, so I got to test it out on them and see how to keep their attention.
“I found the best way is to make them laugh and put funny words in like, ‘The bunny makes a stink’ and ‘The pig flicks her boogers.’"
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