Pregnant Emily Ratajkowski: “We Won't Know The Gender Until Our Child Is 18”
Emily Ratajkowski has announced she is expecting her first child and has stated she will not reveal the baby’s gender.
The model and actress, 29, shared footage of her bump, filmed for Vogue magazine, on her Instagram page stating: "I'll cherish this video as long as I live.”
In an accompanying essay, the star explained why she does not want to reveal the child’s gender, as ‘Sky News’ report.
“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.
“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.”
“To be perfectly honest,” Ratajkowsk revealed she told her husband over dinner, “I’m not sure that I even know that I want a girl. I guess I’d just never really thought about having a boy before. ”
“I do worry a girl will have a lot to live up to as your daughter,” her husband Sebastian Bear-McClard replies. “That’s a lot of pressure.” I wince and think of my own mother and her tales of being homecoming queen, the way I knew the word jealous at the age of three (I pronounced it “jealoust,” telling my mother that her female colleagues were “just jealoust” of her), and the early understanding I had of how beauty could equate to power. I prayed for beauty, pinching my nose tightly on either side before falling asleep, willing it to stay small. I think of the other physically beautiful mothers I’ve known—the stage moms with their own mini-mes. The way their daughters, even as young girls, seem to know their own beauty as if they have already lived entire lives in a grown woman’s body. I think about how women compare one another constantly, doing acrobatic calculations in their heads: In this way, I’m similar to her, in this way I’m not; in this way, I’m better, in this way I’m not.”
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