Comments on: Us Weekly: No Such Thing in Gender-Bending a Child

By: Harriet Meadow

Harriet Meadow — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 18:09:31 +0000

My younger brother (14 years younger, to be exact) used to try putting on my sisters’ and my makeup, and his favorite accessory was a necklace of shiny purple beads. My Dad made a disparaging comment about it one time and was promptly attacked by us four feministas (me, my mom, and my two sisters) saying “he can wear what he wants!” He laughed about it and let it go, and now my brother is a heterosexual male who is comfortable enough in his sexuality to be a dancer and to respond to other boys’ calling him gay by saying “So what if I was?” I personally think that this is fantastic.

By: Alzaetia

Alzaetia — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 16:27:45 +0000

I have a ton of nail polish colors and my son always asks me to put them on him. He wants a different color on every nail. His favorite is gold glittery. He walks around in the sunlight staring at the glitter.
I can tell my mom doesn’t approve, but she has no reason not to, so she keeps her mouth shut.
Glad to know I’m not the only one putting nail polish on their son…

By: genevieve

genevieve — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 14:41:50 +0000

From a developmental standpoint, Shiloh seems to be at the exact age (im not sure how old she is, but i am guessing preschool age) when children become aware of gender, gender roles, and experiment and test. It is completely NORMAL. Gender roles exist, and there is no way to force a child in or out of them. (though conditioning them *in* is a lot easier…unfortunately). Regardless of how one feels about gender roles, children should feel free and unrestricted to experiment with them (they do this naturally!) and test them out, and find out what is comfortable for them. It may be the case that Suri Cruise is perfectly happy in a more “girly” or “princess-y” style, with exaggerated femininity, whereas Shiloh may be more comfortable leaning toward the male or neutral. And this is all temporary anyway. This age, developmentally, is about experimenting and testing. And they should feel free to do so unrestricted and on their own terms. The fact that anyone is criticizing this is beyond me. It reminds me of the movie “Big Daddy.” If the kid wants to wear a cape for a while, let him or her wear a cape. (so long as the child is clean of course.) Geez! People need to stop trying to be the overlords of everything. And parents who overlord their child’s gender (or other people’s kids!!) end up with kids with emotional issues. Just sayin’.

By: The Cat’s Meow & The Hot Links! | Allie Is Wired

The Cat’s Meow & The Hot Links! | Allie Is Wired — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 05:10:49 +0000

[...] Angelina Jolie Is Gender-Bending Her Kids – Zelda Lily [...]

By: Lady Goo Goo

Lady Goo Goo — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 04:04:34 +0000

My foster son used to want to wear nailpolish because his sister did, so I let him. Shiloh has brothers. Maybe she just emulates them.

By: Sydney

Sydney — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 03:01:31 +0000

Plenty of very feminine women wear ties and fedoras (because that looks more like a fedora than a bowler, to me) these days. I’m failing to see what the big deal is. Maybe she’s just ahead of the curve compared to all her little friends.

By: Kai

Kai — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 00:36:10 +0000

No, they shouldn’t be regularly. but a touch of a heel once in a while is not going to screw her up. Nor are the dresses or anything.
Considering all the photos seen of Suri are tabloids, I don’t imagine they’re capturing her happier moments.
The bit of reports from celebrity children are not near enough to gain any real understanding of their life. Maybe it’s great; maybe it’s awful. We sure don’t know.

My original point was simply that there is no good reason to throw in a dig against another family.

By: Alzaetia

Alzaetia — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 22:35:13 +0000

I never see that kid smiling. And if your closet is full of nothing but dresses, picking out the dress you want to wear is not exactly dressing the way you want to.
But maybe she asks for dresses all the time. Still don’t like it that the kid never smiles.

By: Erin

Erin — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 21:53:59 +0000

Yeah, we can really tell that Jolie and Pitt want their girl children to be boys, as evidenced by the manly dress that Zahara is wearing in the pic…

I’m pretty sure that most kids just don’t wear what their parents set out for them if they don’t want to. I’m sure that’s how I ended up wearing a bright blue and pink tutu with a fantastically clashing shirt for most of my childhood.

By: Blurry

Blurry — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 20:39:35 +0000

I don’t know. The heel sthat Suri wears are supposedly some kind of dance shoe or something – but that’s beside the point.

My middle daughter has always been super girly – to the point of refusing to put on the clothes that I got out for her to play in. When she was TWO!

The brat would claim that they didn’t match.

A typical comment from her – “I will wear my apple dress with the white shirt with the dark blue trim under it, white panty hose and my black shoes”. She’ll be 18 soon, and she is still a fashionista.

My eldest was always more of a tomboy, the youngest is somewhere in between.

They’re all brats, though.