Jaden, the son of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, is proof that “masculinity is a much more flexible commodity than it was 10 years,” Halberstam said. What is gender fluidity anyway? It’s a movement that regards gender as “a spectrum rather than a set identity - and there are number of positions on that spectrum available to people to express who they are,” according to Jack Halberstam, gender studies professor at the University of Southern California. “Whether its a skirt or a flower behind his ear, he’s making very public a whole strand of enjoyment that we see from youth all across the country.” “What he’s reflecting in these bold choices is a refusal to be labelled or combined in one stereotype or another, in terms of who you are and how you dress,” Eliza Byard, executive director of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, told TheWrap.Īlso Read: Will Smith's Initial Reaction to Son Jaden's Gender-Bending Style: 'You Cannot Wear a Skirt'
Jaden, the 17-year-old star of Baz Luhrmann‘s upcoming Netflix series “The Get Down,” has generated considerable heat in 2016 for the way he’s expressed his gender both on social platforms like Instagram and by modeling womenswear in a national campaign for Louis Vuitton. Jaden Smith is having a moment of transition - from precocious Hollywood son to high-earning spokesperson for a new frontier in gender identity.
