14 DAY TRIAL // The Brangelina must be one of the most private couples in showbiz and, judging by some tabloid reports, it’s no wonder they choose to spend a fortune on keeping their name out of the media. As the family has relocated to Venice, Italy, while Angelina Jolie is shooting “The Tourist” with Johnny Depp, the paparazzi are having a field day taking snaps of her and the children.
And so are the tabloids. Life&Style, for instance, has decided to have a team of experts analyze recent photos of 3-year-old Shiloh Jolie-Pitt, the couple’s first child by birth and not adoption, and then compare them against older shots. It’s clear the girl got a haircut recently and perhaps she might be wearing more boyish clothes but the tab actually infers that Jolie is deliberately turning her daughter into a boy – and even goes to great lengths to pretend it’s trying to understand why.
The experts, as always is the case in such situations, are actually people who have never met Angelina Jolie, Shiloh or any other member of the family, and who are simply consulted because of their profession. This time, Life&Style talked to stylists and parenting coaches – and all seem to agree that Shiloh should be dressed up like a little girl and not be turned into a boy, no matter how adorable. And then, there are those who see in her the next trendsetter, even though she’s just 3 years of age.
“Shiloh is pushing the boundaries of a tomboy look and crossing over to cross-dresser territory,” Alana Kelen, senior fashion stylist at VH1 says. Celebrity stylist Gili Rashal-Niv does not agree and chooses sarcasm as weapon of choice to prove a point, saying, “I get that times are tough but does Angie really need to have Shiloh sharing clothes with her brothers? Hopefully we won’t be seeing Maddox in one of Shiloh’s dresses any time soon.”
Glenn Stanton, director of Family Formation Studies at the conservative organization Focus on the Family, goes even further, saying the situation is close to tragic. “They need help, they need guidance of what that looks like. It’s important to teach our children that gender distinction is very healthy,” Stanton says. Karen Deerwester, parenting coach, disagrees, “Giving preschool-age children the freedom and flexibility to experiment with how they want to be seen in the world is a wonderful gift.”