British actress Keira Knightley‘s recent feature in Scarlett Curtis’ new Book Feminists Don’t Wear Pink (And Other Lies) has got the internet buzzing.
In the letter, which the actress addresses to her 3-year-old daughter titled The Weaker Sex, she compares her postpartum look with that of the Duchess of Cambridge while berating the Duchess for ‘hiding’ the pain and what she describes as her ‘battleground’ face.
According to E! Online, Knightley who welcomed her daughter a day before Kate Middleton welcomed her daughter, Princess Charlotte, declared Middleton’s pristine appearance after each birth “pretentious”.
Read an excerpt below:
“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.”
She continues, “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. This stuff is easy. It happens every day. What’s the big deal? So does death, you s–t-heads, but you don’t have to pretend that’s easy.”
On her postpartum experience, “My breast is out in front of them all and I don’t care,” she wrote. “Your life is my life. You need me. I’m there. F–k them all with their eyes watching, their embarrassed faces at my animalistic semi-nudity. Is this soft motherhood? My shoes are crusted and sticky with the amniotic fluid of yesterday. They smell.”
She adds, “I remember the s–t, the vomit, the blood, the stitches,” she said. “I remember my battleground. Your battleground and life pulsating. Surviving. And I am the weaker sex? You are?”