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Supermodel Jaime King's son wears a dress on the red carpet

Jamie King with her four-year-old son, James. [Photo: Getty]
Jamie King with her four-year-old son, James. [Photo: Getty]

There’s a lot to be said for parents who let their kids express themselves in any which way they like, from the toys they choose to play with to the clothes they pull out of the wardrobe.

On Tuesday night, supermodel Jaime King proved herself part of this band, hitting the red carpet with her four-year-old son James who was dressed proudly in a pink dress.

Posting a photo of herself and her son at the superhero movie premiere, Jaime wrote: “I love my baby SO MUCH!!! He chose my lipstick and dress with Annabelle Harron.

“To my beautiful husband, I love thee. The greatest creation has been our love made manifest in our children.”

The model has always been open about never pressuring her sons to dress or act in a certain way, and made her stance clear with the hashtag ‘#ifyoulikeitwearit’, which she tagged on to the end of her post.

Thankfully, most of the people commenting on Jaime’s post applauded her parenting methods.

“What excellent parenting, empowering your child to make their own choices and standing by them! You both look very happy!,” one wrote, while another concurred “My nephew loves rocking dresses like this, it’s nice to see a prominent mom like you embracing this. Makes me more confident for an accepting future.”

King and her husband Kyle Newman have been open about their decision to raise their two children – James, 4, and Leo, 2 – gender-neutral in the past.

In 2016, King launched the first-ever gender-neutral clothing line for kids with brand Gardner and the Gang.

“My son loves pink. I look at him and he’s not one way or another,” King told Style Caster. “He’s just like David Bowie. He wants to wear sparkles and pink and bright, vibrant colours, and yet he’s in love with beautiful girls. But specifically, just a lover of everyone.”

With her brand, King has always made it clear she’s not pushing an particular gender-neutral agenda, but she simply wants the element of gender-specificity in clothing to be removed.

“It’s not about me putting out an agenda: ‘You dress a boy in girl’s clothing because that’s what I think you should do or vice versa,’” King told the website. “It’s more, ‘If you like it, you wear it. Great.’ Why can’t kids just explore and be who they are? Why can’t they just wear rad clothes that are fun and cool and stylish that speak to their personality? Why do we have to have labels?”

King isn’t be the first celebrity to take the parenting route: Paloma Faith is among the celebrity parents who have revealed they are raising their children as gender-neutral.

“I’m loving being a mum,” Paloma told The Mirror. “I want two or three kids in all and they’ll be gender neutral.” Insisting she won’t be dressing her children in colours associated with sex – such as pink for girls and blue for boys – she added: “I just want them to be who they want to be.”

Adele, Meghan Fox, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, and Bryce Dallas Howard are other stars who are raising their children sans gender markers.

Whether you’re in favour of or totally against the practice of gender neutral parenting, there’s little doubt parents have the right to raise their children in the way they feel is best for their child.

And if that means letting your child wear whatever takes their fancy that day, like that pink dress did for James, then it’s difficult to argue against that.

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Paloma Faith is raising her child as gender-neutral, but what does that mean?

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