Actress Halle Berry doesn’t want her only son growing up to be aggressively masculine like the men who hurt her.
The Oscar winner is teaching her children about sexism and encouraging her minor son to challenge gender stereotypes.
The 54-year-old Leo shares 12-year-old daughter Nahla Aubry with her model ex Gabriel Aubry, and seven-year-old son Maceo with French actor Olivier Martinez. She is making sure they are well aware about harmful gender expectations.
In a digital Sundance Film Festival panel titled, Women Breaking Barriers: An Industry Shift, the single mom said:
“I have a seven-year-old son, and I have realized what my job is in raising him. If we want to have a future that’s different, that is where it starts. You made me think of how many conversations I’ve had with him, say, since he’s turned five years old, about the differences in boys and girls, and I see how he’s taught to feel like he’s superior, at five, than girls are.”
Halle is raising her son to ignore the differences between the male and female sexes and to reject the masculine thought process.
“I’ve had to really break that down for him and give him a new perspective, and challenge those thoughts and ask him to identify where that comes from, and if he believes that or not and challenge what he’s subconsciously getting from somewhere.
“I can tell that because we’re having those conversations he is going to grow as a deep thinker on the subject. He’s going to be determined not to just accept it. I keep challenging him all the time, like, ‘Well, why is [pink] a ‘girl color?’”
