Chris Hemsworth’s Daughter Came Out With Penis Envy, Here’s How He Handled It

Whoever told you explaining s**t to your children would be difficult was lying. Say anything with enough conviction and your child won’t question it until they’re old enough to hate everything that comes out of your mouth anyway. One celebrity dad, Chris Hemsworth, understands this not-so-complex idea. So when his 4-year-old daughter complained to her father about not having a penis like her brothers (obviously too mature for her age in her understanding of the perks of being a white male), he was admittedly caught off guard, but figured it out just right. Recalling in an interview on Ellen, The Huntsman: Winter’s War actor remembers his daughter asking:

Ya know, the things in between the legs that you have….

He floundered a bit. Oh god, what’s she gonna ask? How do I handle it? Do I lie? Do I lie? you imagine him thinking before he tries to explain the present gender binary present in our culture. He says:

‘Girls have breasts,’ [and she] was like, ‘I don’t want breasts!’ I was like, ‘OK, um…’ She was like, ‘I want a penis!’ I was like, ‘Oh, OK. Um…’

Penis envy is real, folks. And Hemsworth gets it, he tells the inquisitive 4-year-old:

You can be whatever you want to be.

And may she never lose that idea. May her father continue to ingrain that kind of hope in his daughter.