Keira Knightley has banned her three-year-old from watching Disney’s Cinderella. Just like that. Without so much as a Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo.

Her decision, which is based on what she says is the dubious messages films such as Cinderella and The Little Mermaid send about the role of women in society.

But instead of sparking a reasoned debate about the pros and cons of waiting in an attic for a man to come and save you through the power of well-fitting footwear, it lit a fire of rage. But why?

As our columnist Natasha Devon says, Knightley’s point was reasonable and calmly stated. But the reaction, she writes, was rooted in something far more primal.

“We hold a special place in our psyche for the stories we were told as children and view them with a hefty additional dollop of sentimental nostalgia.”

None more so, it seems, than Sun columnist Dan Wootton, who accused Knightley and anyone else supporting her views as “snowflakes” (this year’s insult of choice for people who are doing things with which you inherently disagree).

But Devon says that this outrage on behalf of a poor old multi-billion-dollar empire doesn’t take into account the battles of sexism and racism that many are still facing in today’s society.

“Critics of the ‘snowflake generation’ speak as though classic Disney films are a piece of laughable, diverting trivia in a world otherwise unparalleled in its commitment to promoting body confidence and gender equality.

“Parents like Knightley, conversely, recognise that they represent yet another toxic media message they have to try to counterbalance, lest their daughters grow up like so many other women - with Disney princesses as their blueprint for femininity and all the disordered eating, body loathing and misguided notions about what constitutes ‘romance’, and waiting for a handsome prince to rescue them that accompanies this.”