Actress Natalie Portman has rewritten three well-known fairy tales because the stories were too male and reflected “skewed gender assignment,” she told a British-based celebrity magazine.
Portman, who won a best actress Academy Award for her portrayal of a mentally troubled ballerina in the 2010 film “Black Swan” but is also known for her roles in the Star Wars series of films, said she published a book of “gender-neutral” stories because she didn’t want to read the male-dominated stories to her children.
“I found myself changing the pronouns in many of their books because so many of them had overwhelmingly male characters, disproportionate to reality,” Portman told Hello magazine. “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.
“All books and movies should be reflective of the world, rather than have this kind of skewed gender assignment.”
Portman rewrote the timeless tales “The Three Little Pigs,” “The Tortoise and the Hare,” and “The City Mouse and the Country Mouse,” in her “Natalie Portman’s Fables.”
“'I wrote it for [my children],” she said, referring to her 9-year-old son and 4-year-old daughter. “They were the first readers of my work, so I got to test it out on them and see how to keep their attention.”
The 39-year-old Jerusalem-born Portman has been living in Australia, according to the Daily Mail.
Portman, who has been a staunch supporter of Democratic candidates such as John Kerry, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, also signed a letter last year advocating “defunding of police.”
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