Back in January, Kate Hudson caused a lot of controversy because she poorly described something that seems like a no-brainer (to me, at least). Kate said that she plans to raise her daughter Rani with a “genderless approach.” Kate then came out a few days later and said that she was misquoted, basically, and that a “genderless approach” isn’t a thing. I understood what she meant initially, although I think she did not explain it well. The idea is more like “I’m not going to force a bunch of stereotypes onto a baby and require him or her to only like pink princess sh-t or monster truck sh-t.” That’s how I took it. And that’s how I’m taking this exclusive from Katie Nicholl at Vanity Fair. Nicholl claims that the Duchess of Sussex told her friends that she plans to raise the Polo Baby “fluid.”
With rumors swirling that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are expecting a baby boy—Meghan Markle is said to have told friends at her recent baby shower that they are having a son—there’s a chance the public might know the sex of Baby Sussex before too long. But it might not be a case of blue for a boy and pink for a girl according to a source close to the couple. The duchess is understood to have told at least one friend that they want to raise their baby without gender-stereotyping, which means the nursery might not be filled with toy trains and cars if it is a boy. The Sussexes have already planned a gender-neutral nursery and opted for whites and grays over conventional blue and pink color ways, and this seems to be in line with Meghan’s ideas about how to raise children.
“Meghan has been talking to some of her friends about the birth and how she and Harry plan to raise their baby. Her exact word was fluid,” a source told Vanity Fair. “She said they plan to raise their child with a fluid approach to gender and they won’t be imposing any stereotypes.”
Harry and Prince William were raised with toy cars, toy guns, and toy soldiers, and Meghan has talked about playing with Barbies as a little girl. But a more progressive approach is increasingly popular in America and is considered very much a millennial parenting tactic. More celebrities, including Angelina Jolie and Paloma Faith, have all discussed raising their children without stereotyped ideas about gender in interviews.
You know what I enjoy? Gen-Xers, Millennials and Xennials acting like they invented gender-fluid parenting. Every generation does that, they act like they’re reinventing the wheel when it comes to parenting. Personally, this seems like such a no-brainer, and it boils down to “don’t be a d–k to your kids.” Sometimes boys want to play with Barbies. Sometimes girls want to play with firetrucks. Sometimes boys go through a phase where they wear dresses. Sometimes girls go through a phase where they want to chop off all their hair and play sports. Don’t be a d–k to your kids. That’s basically what this is. Don’t freak out if your son or daughter goes through a phase or doesn’t live up to your gendered expectations about “what boys/girls should do.” That’s all this is. I seriously doubt Meghan and Harry are going to give Polo Baby a unisex name and refuse to use gendered pronouns. They’re just not going to push certain toys on Polo Baby just because of the kid’s gender.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Thats completely fine, but nothing that needs to be public information?! Considering the amount of scrutiny she is already getting. If true, I am surprised this is public information. Especially considering how conservative the royal family protocol is and how everyone and anyone jumps on opportunities to shame people on how they choose to raise their children if it doesn’t fall into their own norms. I agree with them raising their child however they want but strange that this would be something anyone would share, as it is something that should be kept private for anyone making this decision for their child.
This ain’t public information to me. It’s Katie Nichol trying to pretend she’s relevant by guessing something first.
If it’s coming from Vanity Fair, there might be some truth in the sourcing. Wasn’t Vanity Fair the magazine that had the first interview with Meghan about her relationship with Harry. Maybe I’m misremembering. But if this was the magazine that had the first interview, I could see she and Harry continuing to this magazine to release what they want the public to hear sort of like how Charles has info he wants released through certain people (I think).
Yeah… KN doesn’t have ANY “insider” info.
And this parenting is NOTHING new. Doesn’t anyone here remember Marlo Thomas’ “Free To Be, You and Me” and “William Wants a Doll” from the 70s? That was a big deal then. Now, we’re just movin’ on.
@perplexed You must not be familiar with Kate Nicholl. Vanity Fair is one thing but Kate Nicholl is infamous for making up crap and she’s never gotten anything right about Meghan, except when it’s stuff like “Meghan is upset about her father’s antics”, like something we can all deduce. People seem to believe that her only connections are to the Cambridges/Middletons as that’s where her coverage is fluffiest.
Yes why do we need to know this .its their business. It’s private
Is this the new PR? I feel like there are a lot more little stories about her daily almost
This is nothing new. There have been new fake tidbits about Meghan’s lifestyle, thoughts, feelings, behavior, history, etc. at least once a week for the past year, none of which have been proven true, many of which have been proven false. H&M keep their circle tight and there have been no leaks to Kate Nicholl of all people. I don’t see how this can be seen as Meghan’s PR. How does this help her in any way? If anything it’s meant to stir up the crowd that goes on about “liberal snowflake social justice warriors”
Two words.
Katie Nicholl
How come these close friends did not spill where they went on their honeymoon, who was making the bridal gown, where they go on their vacations.
+1 came here to say this. It’s KATE NICHOLL. Come on people. This is her MO. Make up crap about Meghan, whether bad/good/shady based on what perceptions about Meghan. Meghan is portrayed as a leftist hippie Hollywood diva forcing Harry to abandon alcohol and caffeine, so of course they’re going to make something up like this, it fits their agenda.
Oh, a gender fluid approach to parenting should be sure to gain the approval of the British public. Lord, if Meghan leaked this to Vanity Fair, she is even worse at PR than I thought she was.
I don’t believe Meghan would broadcast this—it should be kept personal, for everyone’s sake. So I think this story is a load.
I’m with you, Kaiser. All this is is don’t be a jerk to your kids. Let them play with whatever they want. Let them be whoever they want. I’m no millennial and it’s worked fine for me.
Katie Nicholl has no one in Harry & Meghan’s camp telling her anything, IMO. She’s just writing things she thinks will happen and looking for something to stick. This is also something we’ll likely never know if it’s true so she can claim it is. This is the same woman who said the Harry has a crush on Meghan for 2 years.
Also didn’t Piers Morgan float this idea as a way to denigrate Meghan?
Yes Piers, started this BS, also saying Meghan is going to have Harry wearing a baby carrier.
Why are people so quick to believe all of this garbage?
Because it’s Meghan, and it fits whatever preconceived narrative already in their minds as a gateway to bashing her.
Is there some reason why Harry shouldn’t wear a baby carrier? It will free up his arms. Seems practical to me.
Piers has history with baby carriers. Look up his beef with Daniel Craig wearing a papoose.
It’s basically his shorthand way of saying he thinks Harry is whipped and emasculated by Meghan. He really is that pathetic.
I always thought if I had a kid or had nieces and nephews, I’d dress them in all black or gray.
But I’m having so much fun with colorful colors!
Not me, I had a light grey/white room as a kid.
They are still my two favorite colors.
I really dislike color, especially bright colors.
I love neutrals and I very much dislike trends, it’s just not for me.
I always go for less quantity and a lot more quality, classic pieces that are well made in breathable fabrics like linen, cotton, silk, light wool and cashmere.
I buy very few things and I save for it, so I can afford the best quality, I rather have 5 pairs of great quality shoes over 20 cheaply made shoes, any day.
When I was a girl in 1950s London, age about three, my parents outraged the family by making me a tiny black leather tunic/jerkin thing, cut down from some old Beatnik coat. It went with hand knitted tiny black tights and a jumper (oh gawd). They absolutely flinched at traditionally girly stuff, and predictably, so do I.
It was all imposed though, and not even thought about ever…..who knows, my soul might be an angelic blithe spirit in a frock, a stranger to laceup shoes and pint glasses!
(At the same time as the Biker Toddler Moment, Dad painted the dining room pale pink. Very forward-looking!)
It’s only now that I’m in my 60s that I wonder what the bloOdy hell they had in mind. I think they were suppressed artists really, though a set of watercolours and a sketch pad might have been a less alienating outlet for them, and much less bewildering for me.
Lucky Sussex-sprog, coming alive much later on. 💗
@Glor: that is an amazing story. Please keep commenting!
Being open-minded, accepting and not being one these pink everything or blue everything parents is excellent and should be the new norm for everyone.
You’re right, I really don’t think they’ll refuse to announce the baby’s sex and raise him/her with the “ze” pronoun or something.
I can imagine royal reporters just throwing darts at a wall at this point to see how they can trash meghan today. After this came, right on cue came the dailymail with their version of this article and of course came the hundreds and hundreds of comments about it.
Yeah I feel like this is pretty typical. I do have some friends who are more into the stereotypes – boys cant wear pink, that kind of thing – but most of my friends (I’m Meghan’s age) are pretty laid back and just kind of like….”you want to play with trucks? and you’re a girl? whatever, lets go to Big Truck day.”
My 6 year old boy’s favorite show currently is Barbie Dreamhouse, which bothers me only because I think its a bad show, lol.
So lime green is not her color.
Do you know what I love? Everyone calling people younger than themselves “millennials”. As a thirty-odd year old millennial, the overuse of the word is tiring.
Anyway, back to the point, I see nothing wrong with this. Well done to them. I side eye the ones trying to frame this in a negative way.
However, there is still a knee jerk reaction in society on this subject. I once mentioned to my sister about taking my nephew to ballet class with me…her reaction? “No, I want him to do manly things like football.”
I’ve been side eyeing that ever since, but it’s not my child so I don’t mention it again.
Generational generalizing and obsessing has been the American way since the country’s inception. It’s what we do. Once upon a time it was Baby Boomers this and Baby Boomers that, then it was Gen X, now it’s Millennials…..get over it.
I have this friend in California and his coworker and his wife are not telling anyone the gender, even the grandparents. They plan on naming the baby a gender neutral name and dressing the baby in gender neautral clothes, and not using any gender specific pronouns. They do not plan on telling anyone the gender even after the baby is born. Those are their plans anyway. I guess the grandparents won’t be changing any of the diapers 🤷🏻♀️
I think this is also called being a d!ck to your kid except it also involves being a dick to everyone else in your life.
Refusing to tell people what your child’s genitals look like, either explicitly or implicitly, through stereotypical name or clothing, is being a d-ck? Because when you ask “is it a boy or a girl?” what you are really asking is “does this baby have a vagina or a penis?”
Not today Satan. Sit down.
Around me, there are a lot of families I know doing this. Eventually, around 10-13ish the child starts to exhibit preference for one or the other. Most of the time its the assigned at birth gender.
I’m 57 and my mom always had me in dresses, every hair in place. When I was finally allowed to pick my own clothes it was jeans, t-shirts and tennis shoes. It really broke her heart. Now I wear make up, funky fro but I’m not a girly girl.
I understand the name and clothes and calling the kid “child” instead of boy or girl, but how do you avoid using gendered pronouns in a language where they exist?
Are they going to use the name all the time, will they use “they” or “it”?
This seems hard in English already, it would be a nightmare in my language where even tables and glasses have grammatical genders and where even verbs change accordingly.
Will the child be allowed to say “mom” and “dad”? Those are very gender specific terms.
They use they and them for the child, or the name.
And @me, if the parents preferred acronyms be mom, dad, why wouldn’t they use them?
Mom and dad are not acronyms.
And they are very explicitly gendered, which is odd when raising a gender free child.
To each their own, but the more I think about it, the more I find “they/them” too impersonal for your own child.
Does the child then use “we” for themselves? Pronouns are, like every other linguistic feature, learnt with observation, not felt. You have to understand the boy/girl difference to be able to choose he/she for yourself. What do they do before they come to understand this?
Sounds like they’re making the kid’s life unnecessarily complicated.
I get not pushing stereotypes on kids and letting them explore their own identities, but this is too much for me. I wonder if this actually causes harm for kids. You will never get all of society on board with this type of parenting. At some point the kid is going to realize that Oliver is a boy and Sophie is a girl, and they are going to be confused about why they are a ze.
My son is only 3 and I’ve already talked to him about how some boys have girlfriends, some have boyfriends and some people grow up and don’t want that at all. Some boys want to grow up and wear dresses and be girls. I’m pretty open minded but I think trying to remove gender completely is not the answer. At that point your forcing your own agenda on the kid and that is what we are trying to get away from is putting our own agendas onto kids.
I agree Lady Keller, it’s from one extreme to the other.
And they can dress up and wear make up and glitter if they want and still be boys because being a boy who likes those things is ok. Might grow up to be the next Prince lol. Where did we get this idea that boys have to be masculine or else they’re “not real boys” anyway?
I grew up with an older brother and wore his clothes and used his stuff and toys as a kid and it was never treated as strange by anybody in or outside of our family. But today for some reason it’s some sort of avant garde thing to let a girl enjoy “male toys” or a boy “female toys”? I feel like the 90s were so much more chill about these things.
@Hikaru: And if that boy grows up to be sexually/romantically interested in both girls and boys, imagine if he could identify as bisexual and discuss microaggressions his group(s) face, but with his liberal gay and straight older allies being chill and not bigoted about it? No silencing or gaslighting him or other bisexuals, no Dear Muslimah-ing him, no playing respectability politics, and no acting like it was his job to ‘impress’ them?
Imagine a world like that.
And what are their plans after the diaper stage?
Three days a week,pee while standing up, the other four sitting down. Because , sticking to one position would be the opposite of fluid and would tip grandparents and relatives.
Those parents must be exhausted at the end of the day, I mean more than us the basic ones.
I made my boys sit to pee otherwise I’d be cleaning pee off of EVERYWHERE.
Even so they still managed to pee between the gap in the bowl/seat
Hehe, yeah my dad is a baby boomer and he let me be a tomboy as much as I wanted growing up, even buying me boys clothes when I preferred those to the frilly girly stuff my mom always got me, and this was almost 40 years ago now. Open mindedness wasn’t invented yesterday 🙂 But I still don’t really like the term gender fluid, it’s just parenting based on the personality of the kid rather than some cut out doll stereotype
My mother was apparently gender fluid back in the 1930s when as a small child, she played with toy cars. I’d love to see her face if I told her that!
That doesn’t mean that your parents embraced gender fluidity way back when. It means that your parents felt like there was nothing wrong with girls liking “boy” things. The litmus test would be how your parents would react if their sons liked “girl” things. Girls have always been given the green light to do guy stuff, be tomboys and whatever because the mindset has always been ‘masculine = better’. But boys liking Barbies? Or tutus? Boys liking Disney princesses instead of stereotypical heroes? It’s only fairly recently that parents are shrugging. For a long LONG time, (and even still today) boys have been discouraged from being girly or ‘sissies’ (ugh) or Bronies because apparently being a girl is gross and disgusting.
This is what I was going to say. It’s a lot easier for a lot of dads to accept a daughter wanting to do things that interest HIM than it is for a dad to see their son doing things they deem feminine.
While my generation might not have invented it – we’ve been making leaps and bounds that other generations haven’t. It’s WAY more acceptable to a greater number of millennials and younger than it was to past generations.
Actually my dad is quite a “feminine” man and many of the things I liked as a girl didn’t interest him, he let me do them because I wanted to and because he’s open minded – the same as we are saying about parents today who are good parents – that they let their kids get into what suits them because they are tolerant human beings. My point was – not EVERYONE born before 1990 is an intolerable macho asshole. Did people just completely block out the 70’s freedom movement/ women’s lib or what?
Yes I’ve been thinking about this lately as my son is nearing age 2 and wants to emulate his big sis. He wanted to wear her pink mittens the other morning and my husband took them away from him. I told my husband it’s ok for him to wear them and there was a moment where I could see my husband struggling b/c ‘omg boys can’t wear pink’ and thankfully he acquiesced. But when he wants to wear her skirts or dresses (and he will b/c skirts are pretty! pink is pretty! why can’t boys just be playful and like pretty things?) I’m pretty sure my husband will not be on board. And it sucks b/c all that masculinity boils down to is girls are inferior and it’s insulting to be compared to one. (and yes, I know that many parents may not think that overtly and they just want to protect their boys from bullying, but it just perpetuates the cycle)
I want to respond as I feel that there is a lot to address in your post. However, please don’t feel like I am attacking you, personally. I’m not. It’s just that there is a lot to unpack in those statements regardless of who made them.
First of all, that’s great that your dad was so open-minded about your upbringing and that you felt safe to express yourself freely and without censure. You are right that not EVERYONE born before 1990 is an intolerable macho a-hole. But enough of them are. IF they weren’t, toxic masculinity and patriarchal norms would not be things that we are still struggling against today. The #notall(insertyoursorespothere) is harmful in that it pretends that the exceptions are so exceptional that they make a difference to the whole. Once again, it’s great that your dad was so accepting. But his (the individual’s) open-mindedness only benefitted you. And that’s no shade on him – he could only operate within the confines of his time. We want to see lots and lots of people’s open-mindedness benefitting everyone. The whole eye-rolly “yeahbut it’s not like you invented it” and #notallolds contributes nothing.
Secondly, I don’t see what the 70′s freedom movement/ women’s lib has to do with gender fluidity. Gender fluidity doesn’t only go one way. It’s not simply about girls being free to do follow masculine pursuits.
Thirdly, (and hopefully lastly haha) I think it is lazy and wrong to pretend that millennials do not deserve credit for normalizing a parenting style that was once seen as unusual or indulgent. Sure some people from previous generations felt that girls should be whoever they want to be. After all, even though plenty of girls played with trucks or shopped in the boys department, for a lot of people, it’s all OK as she’ll still go on get married and have kids like girls are supposed to. So for them, it all works out in the end. And many of those girl children are still being made to feel unwanted in ‘man’ jobs like STEM. But I maintain that many of those people felt then (and still feel) that boys should never aspire to be more feminine. It’s only very recently that stereotypical feminine pursuits are not seen as shameful and that boys can and should enjoy them too.
OMG sorry about the freaking novel…..
Good point. Masculinity is often considered better, and sometimes even a sign that a woman or girl can be taken seriously as an activist or sometimes even just as a person with things to say.
When my nephew was about 10, about 8 yrs ago, he chose to be Hello Kitty for Halloween. He did it full on, headband and all. He looked great, and he didn’t get any ribbing from his group. (He would’ve made a gorgeous girl lol).
Maybe just let your kids exist and expose them to everything? I have fraternal male/female twins as babies they wore whatever was clean, as pre schoolers they choose traditional gendered styles. I have been approached about “gendering” them, but really I don’t pick their clothes.
Not giving your child a gender and using the pronouns for their biological sex at first seems like a mind fuck for the child. If thats not what they identify with, cool no problem I’ll support your preferred pronouns. The issue is access to things outside of traditional gender roles not gender in general.
This story is straight BS. Katie knows nothing about what Meghan friends were talking about.
This isn’t anything radical, it’s literally just letting your kids play, dress, and act in a way that makes them feel most themselves. Sadly, I’ve known parents to deter boys from taking dance class or playing with dolls — good for Harry and Meghan for taking an open minded approach. I’d expect nothing less from them!
It really is a no-brainer to try to raise your kids without pushing them toward cultural gender stereotypes. But it’s really hard, actually, when it comes down to it. As the mom of two boys, I’m trying to raise my sons in ways that will avoid toxic masculinity as much as possible, and allow them the full human expression of virtues and emotions. (Meaning, I want them to be ok with expressing sadness and vulnerability, and being nurturing and tender–not just strong and protective and whatever else culture thinks are manly virtues).
You would not believe how damn difficult it can be, though. The messaging is everywhere. When people hear I’m a boy mom, I get all kinds of comments: Oh, you must have a lot of energy to keep up with all that rambunctiousness! Oh, too bad you miss out on all the fun girl stuff! And on and on.
It’s often baby boomers who are guilty of the boys will be be boys comments to me. When my then 3yo son pushed a little girl the same age at the park, of course I was on it right away, but a grandmother came up and told him that boys should never push girls. Umm… We should never push anyone, regardless of sex/gender, and especially if we’re bigger.
Anyhow… I hope that over time, and with lots of parents pushing back against gender stereotypes, we’ll eventually get to a better place . It goes so much deeper than just letting girls play with trucks or boys with dolls. It’s having boys see their fathers be nurturing caregivers who express emotion. It’s having girls see their moms go off to badass jobs and develop great careers. It’s being attentive, always, to the subtle and unsubtle messages that tell us how we’re supposed to behave, and that reward us culturally for looking and acting in ways that reinforce gender stereotypes.
Sorry for the rant. I have a lot of feels about this, apparently haha!
Rant away. I have a baby boy with two older sisters, and get SO many comments “oh, just you wait and see how rambunctious and energetic he will be!” But one of my girls has not stopped moving since the day she was born. She is faster, braver and more energetic and agile than any kid in the neighborhood (or her brother at the same age).
With the girls, it was honestly worse. Unless you keep your children away from any well-meaning strangers, doctors, random aunts and friends, you can’t avoid the “pretty princess” comments. Now I get told that I am so lucky that they can help with their brother, as if they were mini-moms and not his (preschool aged) sisters.
I really hate they’re doing the same thing they did with Angelina when we started noticing Shiloh wasn’t dressing all girly. All the “bad” parenting was attributed to Angelina only and she was responsible for whatever the tabloids disagreed with, and Brad was just poor old dad that couldn’t do anything about it or had no say.
That article was all about Meghan’s (“american”) approach to parenting her child, but no mention of Harry and how (if the report is true) he’s on board with it to. I can already predict if british news outlets are gonna criticize anything after the baby is born, it’s be all about what Meghan’s doing as a parent and will never acknowledge that Harry is involved and probably agrees with it too. I hate this so much.
Oh dear, didn’t you get the memo mtam? Harry has no say in his own life, no opinion other than the ones Meghan gives him. Every man in the public eye is completely dominated by the woman in his live and all of his shortcomings are her fault. I’m sorry I thought this fact was common knowledge by now, at least that media seems to know that. *sarcasm* * lots and lots of sarcasm*
haha, oh right, right. Silly of me, how could I forget.
On a less sarcastic note, we need to do better calling that shit out.
Yet another dumb a** KN article.
As if all this is somehow new. Parents have accepted children as they are even before these concepts of “genderless approach” and such. Already in 80s girls were just fine climbing trees and playing with He-man while boys could play home. Every media is suddenly acting as if ppl everywhere just a year ago as much as forced kids to stereotypes. Maybe some have, maybe somewhere but it’s definitely not universal. And good for her.
I think Katie Nichol is pulling this out of thin air and I always read her stories as if they are somehow supposed to help William and Kate, since I’ve always thought she has a source in their camp. So this story seems absurd to me, but if it’s true, so what. Like many others have said here, isn’t that just letting your kids exist and exposing them to lots of different things?
But can we talk about the dress in the top picture bc I’m kinda surprised that we haven’t brought this up. Meghan had a COUTURE Dior gown made for a reception in Morocco. Assuming the Daily Mail’s numbers are completely BS–they had this dress as costing more than 100,000 pounds–I still cannot get my mind around what Meghan is doing here. Others at this event (like the ambassador’s daughters) were dressed in what almost looked like after school clothes. Harry is in a suit and tie. Can someone help me understand what she is doing here? Because to me, it seems she is either incredibly shortsighted with the public’s tolerance or she simply doesn’t care how her profligate spending comes off. And after the Ralph and Russo engagement picture dress, she doesn’t have the benefit of calling this a novice mistake.
Daily Mails numbers are bullshit. There is no way that dress cost that much.
I think it must be the cost of ALL of her outfits for this trip, not the *one* dress.
I don’t know why you would ever assume that the Daily Mail’s numbers are correct in regards to Meghan.
Also, the cost of her clothes were brought up plenty on the original posts. I’m not sure why its necessary to bring them up again especially considering that her more casual clothes on that trip were repeats or more reasonably priced. I would also point out that Kate wore almost entirely new clothes in Ireland but the comments were fairly restrained about that. No one was blaming her for Brexit. Kate wore just enough repeats in the last couple of months (from her years of Duchess-ing) to earn that “thrifty” title, but she is far from that.
@Hastagwhat How silly of you to reference what the daughters of the Ambassador were wearing. It is of no relevance how they were dressed, they did not attend the reception but were just there to meet Harry and Meghan and present posies of flowers that they had handpicked from their garden because their parents were hosting them at their residence. What the girls were wearing has no bearing whatsoever on the dress code for the event, which looked smart formal, and as a guest of honour Meghan was very suitably dressed as a pregnant lady.
Charles is approving this just as he approved Kate’s wardrobe of multiple expensive duplicates and Camilla’s wardrobe. Meghan was sent on a trip where she would be interacting with Moroccan royalty and her trip wardrobe reflected that.
Bespoke is not the same as couture. We don’t know if it is a couture dress.
The double standards should stop. You have a problem with Meghan living an expensive life even though it is in keeping with the rest of tbe family.
Totally agree here. Just from personal experience of having girls and a boy who all got a range to things to explore, they all went their own ways, which ended up quite stereotypical but such are the odds. My sister did the same with her first, a boy, who now identifies as a girl, which was pretty obvious from the start. Don’t be a dick of a parent and they’ll be who they are.
I think its WONDERFUL…for a child to have ownership of itself….that’s not based on what society dictates….
I don’t believe anything these people write. If it’s a girl she will wear a lot of pink and dresses and if it’s a boy he will wear a lot of blues.
I honestly wonder how Harry and Meghan will be successful with not enforcing gender stereotypes on their child. It seems being part of such a strict institution that they will have to conform to some gender guidelines, with all those protocols they impose. Like women curtsying and men bowing, having to wear pantyhose, gloves, hats, at certain events, or the men serving in the army and wearing their uniforms at certain events. Other strict wardrobe guidelines at royal events or even when meeting with royals of other cultures. Raising them in an environment where they have more pressure to marry the opposite sex and bear children.
These are probably not the best examples, just some I could think of atm. I just find it they really wanna raise them with this approach, it might be more difficult than they expect. Unless they are willing to completely disregard certain rules and responsibilities this system they’re in assigns to gender.
Maybe someone that knows more about this could weigh in.
To say nothing of Lord/Lady, His/Her Royal Highness, etc.
Great point!
Its called being a good human. Boys can wear pink and play with dolls, and girls can wear blue and play with trucks. This is nothing new! Sometimes my toddler son wants hair bows like his younger sister so he gets one. Who cares?? Is this hair bow making him gay!? Ugh nope I can’t believe someone would think that’s it works. My daughter wears her brothers hand me downs, some of which say ‘daddy’s little slugger’ and baseball themed. Guess what?? She can be a little slugger too! Who cares?? I honestly don’t understand why this is even news. Just be a good parent and don’t push gender stereotypes onto children.
Toys aren’t gendered. Just like colors aren’t gendered. And while these generations havent invented gender fluiduty it would be ahistorical to ignore the fact that for previous generations toys and colors WERE looked at as gendered. There are STILL people who think blue is for boys and pink is for girls. I know my grandmother certainly thought that way. I hadGI Joe’s and Transformers AND Barbies when I was little. So no it’s not revolutionary but it is important.
Maybe it’s the area that I live in but people still stick to their stereotypes. It’s okay, and expected, for girls to hunt, fish, and get dirty, but you’d better look pretty while doing it.
But boys better be masculine and not wear skinny jeans. People will share memes comparing old war veterans to hipsters.
My mom told my son he couldn’t wear bracelets bc they’re for girls. I told him he could but the damage was done. I guess she didn’t pay enough attention to realize my brother grew up playing with barbies.
Also, on IG I saw a video where she was telling a woman they didn’t find out the sex of the baby because they thought it would be easier. I assume she meant easier to keep it a secret.
Got news for ya’ll, we tried to raise our kids “gender neutral” back in the late 80’s/early 90’s, as it was termed back then.
My daughter is a girl’s girl as an uber athlete of various types. We bought her “boy’s” toys from a very early age, she was allowed to dress however she wanted, etc. My son loved dolls and stuffed animals to a certain age only, and he’s now a firmly male type of guy with “guy” interests.
You can try all you want. They’re gonna be who they’re gonna be.
I agree, dont be a dick to your kids no matter what they choose to be or do.
Your last sentence is exactly right. They’re gonna be who they’re gonna be, but as long as they know you’ll love them no matter who they are, they’ll be ok.
The palace confirmed this story is totally false.
Katie Nicholl once again proves she is a liar. Let her name the source, oops it was Katie writing fiction again.
Vanity Fair knew she was lying and allow her to continue writing lies about Meghan, because Kensington Palace didn’t deny them before.
Fiction.