Zooey Deschanel isn’t ashamed to be “adorkable,’’ said Logan Hill in Glamour. The quirky star of TV’s New Girl has become a controversial figure for many feminists, who’ve attacked everything from her bangs and childish dress sense—she favors polka dot dresses and tiaras—to her habit of tweeting about puppies, kittens, and cupcakes. This cutesy behavior, they argue, infantilizes women. “I’m just being myself,” says Deschanel, 33. “There is not an ounce of me that believes any of that crap they say. We can’t be feminine and be feminists and be successful? I want to be a f---ing feminist and wear a f---ing Peter Pan collar. So what?” She can’t imagine why people even care how she looks. “If you’re tearing down somebody just for wearing a tiara, rethink your priorities.” Deschanel takes solace in the fact that she’s not the first independent woman to be accused of betraying the sisterhood. “I was with [country singer] Loretta Lynn last summer, and she said, ‘They say I’m not a feminist.’ In the ’60s and ’70s, she was writing songs about the birth control pill and being a strong woman, and people still criticized her. So I always think about that.”
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