I’m encouraging our 11-year-old twins to be gender f luid – Gabby
BBC presenter Gabby Logan has said she encourages her children to be ‘gender fluid’ at home.
The wife of Scotland rugby ace Kenny Logan, 45, has revealed how she prefers to let her 11-year-olds make their own decisions about fashion and hobbies rather than push them towards male and female stereotypes.
Discussing her parenting style for her twins – son Reuben and daughter Lois – Mrs Logan said: ‘I encourage gender fluidity at home.
‘I don’t try to force my daughter into only being into girly things like clothes and make-up, and I don’t try to force my son into only being interested in typically male things either. I think it’s so important to let kids do what they want to do and leave them be.’
Mrs Logan, whose twins were conceived after IVF treatment, added: ‘Let them make up their own minds about what they wear. If my daughter wants to wear an outfit I don’t like, or have her hair a certain way, I won’t intervene.’
While her attitude to gender roles may be thoroughly modern, the 44-year-old seems to have a more traditional approach to technology, having banned the twins from owning mobiles.
She said: ‘Our kids understand our decision on phones and they don’t have social media accounts.’
The Logans are not the only celebrity couple raising their children with a non-conformist approach to gender.
Comedian Russell Brand and his girlfriend Laura Gallacher – the sister of Scots sports presenter Kirsty Gallacher – have said they may raise their daughter Mabel ‘gender neutral’.
Discussing the decision in an interview before Mabel was born, Brand said: ‘We don’t know the gender, I may not even ever impose a gender upon it, let the child grow up and be the whatever the hell it is, never tell it there is such a concept.’
Speaking after the child’s birth last November, he said: ‘I don’t have to dress her in feminine clothes, I don’t need to dress her in clothes for her gender, I’d rather just see how she formulates it herself.
‘I’ve become quite sensitive and aware of that since she was born.’
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have also raised their oldest biological child, Shiloh Jolie-Pitt, in a ‘gender fluid’ fashion.
The 11-year-old, the actress said, told her she wanted to be called John.
In a 2010 interview, Miss Jolie revealed: ‘She wants to be a boy. So we had to cut her hair.
‘She likes to wear boys’ everything. She thinks she’s one of the brothers.’
Actor Will Smith’s son Jaden Smith has also taken to the red carpet dressed in skirts and other androgynous clothing. Discussing his choice, the 18-year-old said: ‘I feel like people are kind of confused about gender norms.
‘I feel like people don’t really get it. I’m not saying that I get it, I’m just saying that I’ve never seen any distinction.
‘I don’t see man clothes and woman clothes, I just see scared people and comfortable people.’
And actress Susan Sarandon, 68, has said her son does not conform to gender norms. She said: ‘My son Miles is a musician and a DJ and sometimes when his band performs they all wear dresses, and he has long hair.’
A number of UK schools have introduced gender-neutral school uniforms – a move which allows boys to wear skirts and girls to wear trousers.
NHS guidance to Scottish schools earlier this year also recommended that they reduce the distinction between boys and girls.
The guide outlines how pupils should select their own genders and says that awards such as ‘head boy’ and ‘head girl’ should be dropped.
‘Let kids do what they want to do’