Woke no more: Emily Ratajkowski backtracks, gives her new baby a gender after all

Greg P. | 7:11 AM on March 25, 2021

How it started. . .

Supermodel Emily Ratajkowski told Vogue in October that she won’t know the gender of her baby “until our child is 18 and that they’ll let us know then”:

"I don’t like that we force gender-based preconceptions onto people, let alone babies. I want to be a parent who allows my child to show themself to me": @Emrata, in her own words for our digital cover, on pregnancy and bringing a child into the world. https://t.co/lA08qz8xfJ pic.twitter.com/W1b0eog10m

— Vogue Magazine (@voguemagazine) October 26, 2020

From Vogue:

WHEN MY HUSBAND AND I tell friends that I’m pregnant, their first question after “Congratulations” is almost always “Do you know what you want?” We like to respond that we won’t know the gender until our child is 18 and that they’ll let us know then. Everyone laughs at this. There is a truth to our line, though, one that hints at possibilities that are much more complex than whatever genitalia our child might be born with: the truth that we ultimately have no idea who—rather than what—is growing inside my belly. Who will this person be? What kind of person will we become parents to? How will they change our lives and who we are? This is a wondrous and terrifying concept, one that renders us both helpless and humbled.

And she likes “the idea of forcing as few gender stereotypes on [her] child as possible”:

I like the idea of forcing as few gender stereotypes on my child as possible. But no matter how progressive I may hope to be, I understand the desire to know the gender of our fetus; it feels like the first real opportunity to glimpse who they might be. As my body changes in bizarre and unfamiliar ways, it’s comforting to obtain any information that might make what’s coming feel more real.