Get ready for the Gender Creative Parenting movement

It takes courage to stand apart from the crowd, but that’s exactly what Kyl and Brent Myer have chosen to do when it comes to their unique style of parenting. The couple, who are residents of Salt Lake City, Utah in the US, have chosen to raise their child Zoomer in a gender-neutral environment. Thus becoming a part of the Gender Creative Parenting movement. 

To start with, the mother and father of the two-year-old have decided not to tell people the gender of their toddler.

Raising Zoomer

The Utah couple has only let their immediate family know about the sex of their child, choosing not to disclose the same to others. Kyl and Brent have also opted to use gender-neutral pronouns when referring to their little one, like they/them/their. In her blog, Raising Zoomer, Kyl said, “The sex does not tell us anything about the child’s personality, temperament, favourite colour, dietary preferences, sense of humour, attitudes toward climate change, or any of their other unique traits. Just like the fact they have two arms doesn’t tell us anything else about them, except they have two arms.” She does, however, acknowledge that Zoomer, or Z for short, will eventually identify as one of the genders and stressed that they aren’t banning the child from expressing any gender-specific preferences.

Gender-flipping names a hot trend this year

(Clockwise: Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds with daughters — Ines and James; Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis and (below) their daughter Wyatt)

Recently, a study by the parenting site ChannelMum.com revealed that there is a cultural shift, which has resulted in parents increasingly choosing gender-flipped names for their newborns. Considering a gender crossover name is predicted to be this year’s biggest trend. Well, you already have celeb couples like Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds who have chosen to go in for a gender-neutral name for their daughter James, while Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis have done the same with their daughter Wyatt. So, that was a start, which has now become a movement.

When reel imitates real life

(A Kid Like Jake)

This cultural shift is also being echoed in popular culture. The 2018 release A Kid Like Jake sees Claire Danes and Jim Parsons as parents to a little boy who likes to wear skirts. The film explores contemporary parenthood through the eyes of a gender variant kid. And it’s not just the common folk who seem to be embracing this new parenting trend, celebs also seem to be on it. Here’s, looking at a few who have chosen to let their kids explore their gender identity.

Angelina Jolie

(Shiloh Jolie-Pitt; Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie)

Jolie and Brad Pitt let their child Shiloh explore the idea of gender identity. Jolie even spoke to Vanity Fair about it in 2010 revealing, “She wants to be a boy. So we had to cut her hair. She likes to wear boys’ everything.” Jolie went on to share on BBC Radio 4’s Women’s Hour, “You don’t know who your children are until they show you who they are.They are just becoming whoever they want to be.”

Adele

(Angelo and Adele)

The Grammy-winning singer is clear that she wants her son Angelo to have the freedom to express himself. She recently took him to Disneyland, letting him pick and wear a Princess Anna costume. She told Time, “I can’t wait to know who his best friends are going to be, who his girlfriend or his boyfriend is going to be or what movies he likes. Whatever my kid wants to do or be I will always support him no matter what.”

Russel Brand

(Russel Brand and Mabel)

This stand-up comic spoke about his take on gender even before his daughter Mabel’s birth. On The Jonathon Ross Show he said about raising a child, “I may not even impose a gender upon it, let the child grow up and be whatever the hell it is.” And he clearly is living by those words. In a recent interview on This Morning, Brand said, “I have re-evaluated the way that I unconsciously looked at gender, because now I’ve got a daughter I think ‘Wow, I don’t necessarily need to dress her in clothes that are indicative of her gender. Why would you?’ I’ve become quite sensitive to that and aware of it.”

Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith

(Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith; Jaden Smith)

This couple was on the gender-bender bandwagon long before anyone else. In fact, they have let their children live on their own terms. Their son Jaden is often seen in skirts and dresses hitting out at the very idea that men or women need to dress up a certain way.