It can’t be easy for Daisy Ridley. Only a few months ago, nobody knew who she was, and now she’s a global celebrity. While there are certainly positives to all this new attention, it must be said that it has it’s dark side as well. The Star Wars: The Force Awakens actress recently had to deal with a body shaming troll who went after her for being too skinny and setting poor standards for Star Wars fans who admire Rey. She’s now posted a complete response. Check it out below.
The entire thing apparently began with a post Daisy Ridley made during the recent International Women’s Day which celebrated strong women. Amongst the supportive comments she received were a number of misogynistic responses as well. This included a meme style image of Rey which included a comic book style voice balloon which included "I can’t believe the unrealistic expectations I’m setting for young girls." and "Don’t they know real women have curves?" Ridley originally responded to the post, but then deleted it when the sender began to receive an influx of comments from Daisy Ridley supporters. Instead, she posted the statement above to her Instagram, in an attempt to stay positive.
Daisy Ridley, and her character Rey, have become something as a lightning rod of controversy since the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. While most fans appreciated the inclusion of a strong woman as the lead character of the new film, you can’t be a celebrity in the modern age of social media without getting backlash from somewhere. It’s admirable that the actress is trying to keep her message positive, considering how easy it would be to simply shout down this sort of abuse.
Daisy Ridley claims she normally receives such positive messages from people. She knows that Rey as a character inspires people, especially young girls, and Ridley obviously takes that responsibility very seriously. It’s unfortunate that anybody would use the character as a platform to shame anybody for any reason. Still, Ridley doesn’t want people to focus on that part of the argument.
Daisy Ridley and Rey aren’t going anywhere. They’ll be around for at least two more movies in the Star Wars universe and, based on her popularity, we won’t be surprised if she hangs around longer than that. We look forward to seeing what Rey does as a character and what Daisy Ridley does as an actress going forward. She likely won’t cure all the awfulness in the world, but she may be able to keep us on the right path.
