Posted on 12/28/2014 12:18:17 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Hollywood recently unveiled yet another of many feature films for the holiday season, this one the ambitious World War II era character study, Unbroken. It was directed by Angelina Jolie, and while I haven’t seen it yet, the topic looks fascinating. When it came time for the red carpet activities, though, Jolie’s family had to step in for her and do a quick turn for the cameras. Here’s one photo from the event, featuring husband Brad Pitt and several of their children.
That’s a handsome group of fellows, isn’t it? But if you look a bit closer there’s a bit of a mystery here. The blond haired child in the center isn’t actually a boy at all. It’s Jolie’s eight year old daughter by birth, Shiloh. Susan Goldberg at PJ Media caught this story recently, in which we discover that Shiloh “identifies as a male” and chooses to go by the name John. This tale was oh so politically correctly highlighted by Refinery 29.
Angelina Jolie’s entire family recently stepped out on the red carpet to support their mother’s new movie, Unbroken. The couple’s oldest biological child, who was assigned female at birth, joined brothers Maddox and Pax wearing sharp suits and short haircuts.
Pitt and Jolie have been fairly open over the years about Shiloh’s interest in all things considered masculine. In an interview with Oprah in 2008, Brad Pitt discussed how Shiloh wanted to be called John.
The eight-year-old’s family fully supports their decision to self-identify — from an affinity for suits and ties to shorter hair to the name change.
While you pick your jaws up off the floor, I’ll offer up this example of the great lengths the reporter went to in order to ensure that nobody’s gender sensibilities were offended.
Editor’s Note: We have followed the Advocate’s lead, and referred to John Jolie-Pitt as “they” as a gender-neutral pronoun to respect John’s decision, whatever gender they may end up being.
While I generally try to avoid all things Hollywood in my own writing, this story has to make one wonder precisely how things went so far off track as to come to this turn of events. Goldberg has a theory:
Probably about as dumb as the Advocate grasping at straws via the stale tale of Shiloh Pitt, who apparently has been dressed in boyswear and given boyishly short haircuts by her parents since she was a toddler. Four years later, why wouldn’t an 8-year-old girl think she ought to be called “John”? If anything she’s aiming for a more defined gender identity than her parents have yet to give her, either through her name, her hair, or her clothing, let alone the gender-neutral pronouns being used to identify her in the media.
What is to become of this little girl in the future? And given the massive media attention paid to her parents and all things related to them, how can a new generation of children – most of whom have smart phones and tablets by the age of 8 these days – avoid thinking that there is something normal about this?
Young girls who grow up in a household with brothers can frequently take on tomboy characteristics. I observed that myself while growing up, visiting two male cousins at my Uncle’s farm. Their younger sister would traipse along with us (generally to our annoyance) and was frequently dressed in jeans and tee shirts since we were out playing on the farm. But she kept her birth name, and after puberty struck she was quickly wearing dresses and “girly” clothes, obsessing over boys and doing all the things that teenage girls do. There’s really nothing unusual about that at all.
But when media exposure changes the child’s perspective from wanting to go search for turtles and snakes with her brother to a reevaluation of her gender and switching to a masculine name, the car of that family is heading for the ditch. An eight year old knows nothing of sexuality and “gender identification” and, frankly, doesn’t need to know anything about it. She needs to have time to be a kid and do all the silly, fun things that kids do without worrying about such adult notions.
Shiloh may still turn around in a few years and become “Shiloh” again. But in the meantime, children around the world are looking at her and thinking, “I wonder if that’s who I am too?” This is not a solution. It’s a problem.
This is why I think, as someone said above, that conservatives have to drop “gender” as a concept. With very rare exceptions of genetic damage, we are male or female. That is immutable. How each of us chooses to dress, what interests each of us, and so on, is our individuality. It doesn’t change our sex, and it doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with our sexual desires.
I think that reasonable parents could say, “Shiloh wants to wear a suit to be like her brothers,” without adding, “because she’s ‘really’ male, not female.” When I was a Girl Scout leader, one of my friends had a son who had three older sisters. He “wanted to be a girl,” because Girl Scouts did fun things.
At my suggestion, she made him a t-shirt that said “Troop 123’s Little Brother,” and he wore it whenever the Girl Scouts were doing something fun. Eventually, he got old enough for Cub Scouts and didn’t have to be a GS tagalong.
My youngest - a girl after four boys - will end up being Pack 198’s Little Sister. That won’t turn her into a boy, no matter how hard she insists she’s a Cub Scout.
No way, my wife is a tough woman, but all the more interested in men, for example, me. Anyways, it was cool to have a spouse that likes riding bikes and hiking with me.
I am saddened to hear that there are kids getting help with this. I was a tomboy until the hormones kicked in at 15. Still love being outside, hate shopping, and am very mechanically inclined. I am also an artist. I used to worry about it when I found out about how a woman’s index finger is supposed to be longer than her ring finger. LOL
I just put my quirks up to me being a country girl unfortunate enough to be born in the Bronx. Yes I have thought about writing a country song about it. I love real men who are able to carry their brothers on their backs for miles, and always wanted 5 kids.
I wonder if the number of kids getting help with it are there because their parents are flipping out about it. We really should give moral guidelines to our kids but there isn’t anything immoral about girls playing football with their brothers because when she plays the teams are even.
I think Shiloh feels more love and acceptance from her dad and adopted brothers than her mother. AJ is insanely jealous, and neurotic, her attempts to Munchausen Shiloh are manifesting in Shiloh camoflaging the beauty of inside and out that apparently upsets AJ. AJ doesn’t like women, not even her own kids, except as sex objects.
Shiloh will get out of this, maybe go live with Grampa Jon, and once out of the poison will do her own thing in a skirt and charm Hollyweird and everybody else senseless.
Rgr that .... I’m proud to have married one !!
Snoot ;o)
A much more intelligent and graceful way to handle the "gender issue." But some people have trouble seeing the obvious, the gentle, the no-big-deal solutions. The Drama Queens in HoWood couldn't possibly see anything but DRAMA.
Childhood innocence and simplicity of thought is abused and corrupted by the crazies who have to make a "gender" statement with their own children. (Cute story about the t-shirt!)
I've noticed that the use of the word "gender" is in itself a slick trick... "gender" actually being a classification system for nouns, a way of ordering words, NOT genes and real bodies.
The use of "gender" instead of "sex" is therefore likely intentional, as they are intentionally perverting language and thought, not the core genetic, immutable substance of human beings.
They can only play god through crafty word games.
I'm a strict diptererian, dipteraterian, dipteraneous...
I eat flies!
That’s a great response! I had a daughter who, when she was about 7, had a fantasy life where she believed she was a cow. I don’t know why she fixed on cows, except that she had always loved the silly little “Purple Cow” limerick I used to recite to the kids. But I never put her in a barn and starts feeding her hay.
Fading star Angelina is getting her new15 minutes of politically correct fame by destroying her daughter’s life.
My 3rd daughter really wanted a sister, and after the 4th younger brother was born, she tried to get him to be “girly.” The result was, “Sally, you can’t paint my nails! James says I’m a BOY and I don’t have to!”
I think the key, for normal people, is “no big deal.” One of my sons (after two sisters), got the idea he was a girl because we hadn’t cut his hair. He had curls like a poodle, and it got to be about 6” long before we cut it. Eventually, explaining, “You were always a boy, Pat. You just had longer hair for a while,” got through. He never changed “gender”: he just got a haircut.
Kathleen thinks she’s a cat half the time, because she’s watched “The Aristocats” endlessly, darned Netflix streaming. It doesn’t make her a cat.
The boys have been through phases of thinking they’re dinosaurs. “Fine, you’re a dinosaur. Reptiles are cold-blooded and go to sleep at night.”
All this stuff is easy if the parents don’t have crazy notions.
"It's a family act...."
Oh, wait, that’s “AristoCATS.”
>>WHAT is in the air out there?<<
Scientology?
I noticed with the very first baby pics that Shiloh was not only a very beautiful child, but she looked just like grandpa. It was hard not to notice because her arrival coincided with the latest feud/estrangemnet that was going on between dad and dingbat at the time. I thought AJ must have been really p*ssed...
Cats. We are proudly petit-bourgeoisie, with serious redneck highlights.
That MIGHT, to a degree, apply in the opposite case. Most of those hormones are estrogenic, so would tend to feminize.
Also, look at the purported soy connection: same deal, estrogenic.
I meant to add how “odd” then, that the little girl supposedly wants to be called John. At least they spelled it the usual way, lest people psychoanalyze!
But only if she fancies a parody of intercourse via her solid waste disposal organs. :o(
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.