Meghan Markle and Prince Harry Are Reportedly Raising Their Baby “With a Fluid Approach to Gender”
Meghan Markle’s projected due date for her first child with Prince Harry is rapidly approaching—rumor has it she’s expecting in April or early May—so, by this point, speculation has moved on from the when to the where to the what gender to the many baby showers to how will she even raise the baby? That’s right, per an anonymous source speaking with Vanity Fair royals correspondent Katie Nicholl, Meghan Markle was recently heard discussing her plans for child-rearing, telling friends “they plan to raise their child with a fluid approach to gender and they won’t be imposing any stereotypes.”
If you’ve been keeping up with royal baby 2.0 micro-developments, this shouldn’t come as much of a surprise; Harry and Meghan began designing the nursery at their new abode, Frogmore Cottage, in January, opting for an “eco-friendly, gender-neutral” space for their baby, per Vanity Fair. (This basically means that they’re decorating in neutral greys and whites, rather than the historically gendered pinks and blues, and they’ll be painting with vegan, eucalyptus oil-infused paints.) At the time, the magazine also reported that Harry and Meghan decided not to learn their baby’s gender in advance of the birth, though subsequent news has indicated it’s going to be a boy.
As Jezebel pointed out, this … isn’t necessarily a radical proposition. The royal baby’s nursery will be painted in neutral colors, and it won’t be “filled with toy trains and cars” if the newborn is, in fact, a boy. And, hey, if we’re talking gender stereotypes, just look at Prince George and Princess Charlotte, who both love ballet. Boys are more likely to be bullied for partaking in ballet—but they also get better parts.
A similar ethos has been permeating Hollywood lately. Kate Hudson recently said she’s raising her daughter with a “genderless approach” essentially meaning she didn’t want to make assumptions or impose gender norms on her baby; The Favourite actor Nicholas Hoult has been sticking with they/them pronouns when discussing his newborn—though likely more out of a preference for privacy than any sort of gesture towards gender-neutrality—and has made clear what he perceives to be the importance of having “a little more empathy now and then” for other genders.
Related: Why the Art World is Focusing In on Gender Fluidity
