Whitney Portis firing back over criticism of her sonSonny Sanford’s long hair.
In a YouTube video titled, “I Love My Toddler, But Let’s Talk About His Hair,”TheHills: New Beginningsstar, 34, spoke out about how she and husband Tim Rosenman are letting their 2-year-old son express himself.
In addition to a handful of sweet family photos in the video, Port also included an adorable clip of her son with a smile on his face as he compared his appearance — and his mom’s — to Elsa fromFrozen.
The reality star explained that while she and her husband are fans of their son’s “beautiful hair,” she had recently received an upsetting comment about her boy’s locks on social media.
“Iput a picture up of Sonny on my Instagram, as I usually do and someone commented: ‘He looks like a she, Whitney. I get the whole not wanting to depict their gender but jesus, this is the third pic of him today that if I didn’t know he was a son I’d most def think he was a girl,” they wrote, as Port commented that “there’s so much wrong in there.”
“First off, what is a he supposed to look like and what is a she supposed to look like. There isn’t any supposed to look like anything,” the mom of one added. “Whoever said that because boys have long hair that makes them less of a boy, I just don’t understand that.”
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Whitney Port and family.Whitney Port/Instagram
“It’s homophobic,” said her husband, who was behind the camera.
“Yeah, it’s homophobic and this felt like something I needed to respond to because I’m not cool with that,” she said. “It’s one thing if people think I complain a lot or they’re saying something negative about me, but to be homophobic and let that live on my feed, I needed to respond back.”
“We are going to dress Sonny for as long as that’s what we have to do. As soon as Sonny tells us he wants to wear something or has an opinion, Whatever he wants, how you dress is an expression of you and your personality and no one should tell you that there’s one way to do that,” Port added.
Backing his wife up, Rosenman said that “if hewants to wear a dress, he can wear a f— dress.”
“We are not pushing him towards heterosexuality or homosexuality. He will just be whatever he is born to be and we’re here to support that. Not push him in one direction or another,” he said.
As their son continues to grow up, Port wants to make sure that she and her husband make Sonny feel accepted.
“It is frustrating to think that Sonny will be in a world where these people exist and they have these antiquated opinions, but I think it’s our job to have these kinds of conversations with him,” she said. “It’s important to have these conversations, to support your children when you maybe see the tiniest ounce of what would be called ‘different.’ to support that difference and make them feel that it’s okay.”
Later on in the video, Port pointed out men having long hair is nothing new, specifically mentioning actorJason Momoawho has been known to step out on the red carpetwearing a scrunchie around his wrist.
Port went on to share that although she and her husband might cut their son’s hair in the future, their decision will solely be about their son’s wellbeing.
“I think it’s becoming more of a frustration for him. I think it’s painful for him,” she explained, noting that his hair can get very tangled and even form dreadlocks as his sensitive scalp makes brushing difficult. “He doesn’t have the tools to change it himself, so I feel like as parents, we have to make those kinds of decisions for him.”
“So when you see him with short hair, it is not anything that you said, it is just to make sonny’s life a little bit easier,” she added.
source: people.com
