Zoe Saldana is raising three sons ‘in a gender neutral environment’
Zoe Saldana has revealed snippets of her personal life, specifically how she raises her three sons with husband Marco Perego Saldana.
The Avengers actress, who plays Gamora in Guardians Of The Galaxy, shares four-year-old twins Cy and Bowie with Marco, as well as two-year-old Zen.
She opened up about how she raises her little boys, revealing that she was attempting to keep her household a "gender-neutal environment" with male and female inspirations involved in their lives.
"I’m always gonna be honest and that is always the best way to welcome healthy and truthful discourse, especially around parenthood," the actress told Us Weekly this week.
"The twins made a comment two weeks ago like, “Boys are stronger than girls,” because they’re in that stage of comparisons. And you have to take a moment and kind of put together an answer that they will understand," she continued.
She wants her boys to be a "blank slate", rather than being influenced by gender stereotypes before choosing their own identities.
Her aim is, "To not bring all this charge that you have as an adult and as a woman into their lives." She opened up last June about allowing her sons to pick their own method of doing things, with Zoe leading by example with her partner.
"We have a very gender-neutral environment where my husband participates in a lot of tasks that were normally given to women and vice versa," she previously told Us Weekly. "I get to do a lot of male things, which is, I don’t know, put the TV together, fix things that break," she said.
"We’re sort of a very gender-fluid household. I think it’s important to raise boys in that environment, and girls as well," the 40-year-old mused.
Zoe has often done things in an unconventional way, shunning 'tradition', such as her husband Marco taking her surname when they wed in 2013.
Saying he liked the name, Zoe recently added:
"He wanted to really represent being a part of my family and represent my father’s legacy. He respected the fact that he didn’t want me to have to give up my name just because that’s the norm."
Saldana was interviewed by People in 2018 and touched upon the idea of gender and parenting;
“When you look at parenting, the whole thing about matriarchy and patriarchy, and Daddy’s little girl and Mama’s boys ― my husband and I find that completely ludicrous and absolutely unhealthy for the upbringing of a child."
“You’re giving them a very distorted and limited view on what a female role is supposed to be in a family and what a male role is supposed to be."
Feature image: HuffPost
