Jennifer Siebel Newsom, wife of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, is drawing attention online for resurfaced remarks about giving her boys dolls to play with and even changing male characters in books to females.
“I’ve given our boys dolls, even if they tear the head off,” Newsom said in an undated interview that resurfaced on X. “I’ve given them dolls to learn that care and caregiving is not just an activity that’s reserved for women, but that it’s also an activity that is a responsibility of men.”
She also said she changes male characters to female when reading books to her sons.“What I have done with both my daughters and my sons is if I’m reading a book and the protagonist is a male, I just change the he to a she,” Newsom said. “And it just normalizes for my sons, in particular, it’s not even … I don’t even just do it for my girls. I do it for my sons because I want them to see that women can be the center of a story, that women matter, that women are interesting.”
Newsom also talked about deconstructing gender roles.
“At the end of the day, we’re all kind of like in this place in history maybe where we’re recognizing what it is to ultimately deconstruct all these gender roles and ultimately be human, and that’s exciting to me,” Newsom said.
“So, you know, I’ll just continue to kind of do my work and try and deconstruct all these limiting narratives about ultimately what it means to be human.”
In a 2016 interview published by Salon.com, Newsom made similar remarks about giving her boys dolls to play with. “What do we need to do to combat that straitjacket of gender stereotypes that we put our kids into?” Newsom asked. “We need to encourage our boys to play with dolls and stuffed animals and nurture them and learn that caregiving and nurturing and love and empathy are not just feminine pursuits.
Siebel Newsom, pictured with her husband Gov. Gavin Newsom, has also been criticized for comments stating that evangelicals are “pulling us back as a country.” Instagram/@jennifersiebelnewsom Sign up for the California Morning Report newsletter California's top news, sports and entertainment delivered to your inbox every day.
“We need to encourage girls to not only play with dolls and dress up, but to build things and play with Legos and trucks and be physical and go out there and kick a ball.”
Newsom also recently drew attention from a resurfaced 2022 interview in which she told journalist Elex Michaelson when he was working at a local Los Angeles station that evangelicals are “pulling us back as a country.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Siebel Newsom’s office for comment.
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