When I first saw it, I thought Awww…here’s a child who is cute and confident with a side of sass. She just emanates personality.   I approve!

 

But goodness me, the vitriolic comments pouring in from readers over at US magazine are truly disturbing. Do yourself a favour and skip them. They not only rant on the hair, but also her clothes, equating her looks to child abuse, and going so far as accusing the Jolie-Pitts of hatching some secret subversive lesbian/transgender indoctrination plot. The ignorance is astounding.

 

People need to chill out a little. We’re talking about a little girl with short hair. Remember short hair? I certainly do. In kindergarten I had the requisite bowl cut. My mom tried in vain to get me to wear pigtails but I was always losing the ribbons. Plus, the mud puddles were always calling my name so she had bigger problems. Eventually, she surrendered to the short.   Was she deliberately inflicting ugly on me? I think anyone out there who has ever run a comb through a child’s hair would agree that my mom did it to make all our lives easier. Period.

 

Back in 2008. Brad Pitt revealed on the Oprah Winfrey show that Shiloh was a huge fan of Peter Pan, and joked that at times she would only respond to the names John and Peter. Talk about method acting—and something most kids go through. And yet, once again it was this last part about gender bending that was picked up by the media and blown totally out of proportion. Now I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: why the mad rush to sexualize our children? Why do we have to turn our girls into princesses and our boys into athletes?

 

As parents, we have the power to either reinforce these stereotypes, or deconstruct them. Why place such restrictions on our children, dictating what they can and can’t wear and what they can and can’t play with. What a crushing thing for a child to be interested in something, only to be told it’s not gender appropriate for him/her.  I can’t say that I’m a fan of everything Brad and Angelina do (like, shave off that dirty beard already!), but in this case, I applaud them for nurturing their child’s spirit, and allowing Shiloh to assert her independence and will. She may be little but she is capable of making all kinds of decisions.    Like what to wear as she defeats Captain Hook with a definitive sweep of her sword.

 

-- Sarah Simpson

   sarah@babyontheway.ca