Daisy Ridley Responds to Criticism That Her ‘Star Wars’ Character Sets “Unrealistic Expectations”

Daisy Ridley is speaking out against criticism that the actress set “unrealistic expectations” for young girls.

The Star Wars actress shared a post on Instagram after a user posted a meme targeting Ridley’s thin figure. The image, which was reposted on Ridley’s account, showed her character, Rey, with a thought bubble containing the words: “Who cast me anyway? Don’t they know real women have curves?”

“‘Real women’ are all shapes and sizes, all ethnicities, all levels of brave, have families, don’t have families. I am a ‘real women’ like every other woman in this world,” Ridley’s response to the user read (she later deleted the photo on her account, telling her followers, “It was not my intention for anyone to send messages to that poor person that posted the original picture.”)

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She continued in a separate post, “What’s weird is most of the time I see such gorgeous messages from people around the world. People who relate to something in Rey they haven’t found in a female character before. People who’s [sic] daughters now think they can do things without the aid of a man, but who wouldn’t be ashamed to ask for help. People who loved that The Force Awakens has multiple incredible female characters. It is much more hurtful to continue to slate other women than BE a woman, BE a character, BE whoever you want to be.”

The actress revealed she received misogynistic comments on her social media account after posting a photo in celebration of International Women’s Day on Tuesday.

“I’m a normal girl thrust into extraordinary circumstances, just like Rey. I will not apologise for how I look, what I say and how I live my life cause what’s happening inside is much more important anyway and I am striving to be the best version of myself, even if I stumble along the way,” she wrote.

Ridley concluded her post by pleading, “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all. Kindness isn’t going to cure the world of all its awfulness but it’s a good place to begin.”

Read her post in full below.

 

Guys it was not my intention for anyone to send messages to that poor person that posted the original picture. My whole post is about being kind to each other, so please refrain!

A photo posted by @daisyridley on Mar 9, 2016 at 1:13pm PST