She's That Cool Feminist Mom You Wanna Be

As if there weren't already enough reasons to adore Kristen Bell — she's Veronica Mars , she dressed up as Khaleesi and Khal Drogo for Halloween with husband Dax Shepard, she loves sloths so much she cries — now she's also become the posterwoman for the cool, hip, progressively frank, and feminist mother I would one day hypothetically aspire to be should I find myself charged with the upbringing of a tiny human. During an appearance on Chelsea Handler's E! talkshow, Chelsea Lately , the Frozen and House of Lies actress opened up about her thoughts on shielding her newborn daughter Lincoln from the realities of life. And holy shit they are totally, unrelentingly rad.

When asked by Handler about her views on parenting (at the 1:34 mark), Bell was refreshingly frank. "People ask, 'Oh you've done sexy material, do you not want her to see that?' and I'm like, my guess if she's like anything like the other 5 billion people on the planet, she's going to grow up and enjoy sex. So I'm not going to be shocked by that," Bell explained.

The actress continued, focusing on the insurmountable obstacle that is shielding your child from the realities of the world: "I just think you're setting yourself up for disaster if you try to keep them little ... she's going to grow up and she has — newsflash — a vagina and she's going to figure it out one day. And more power to her."

Now, while Bell's numerics are off slightly — there are 7 billion people currently populating the earth but who's counting? — we're sort of obsessed with how totally feminist, modern, and cool her outlook is on all of this. Can it be a bit jarring to hear a mother talk about her 10-month-old daughter's vagina and sexuality with such bluntness? Sure, but that's only because we're all conversational prudes, terrified of removing the gauzy veil we've swaddled reality in so as to avoid confronting the act of growing up with all those human parts, feelings, thoughts, and ways.

Bell's acceptance of the mind-bending concept of what it means to be a physical human, coupled with the respect of her daughter's own physical autonomy tears down the old social constructs that ultimately lead to more destructive, repression-fueled behavior. Women today already face a great deal of conflict when faced with their own sexual discovery, and Bell's decision to raise her daughter aware of the world and her own self are, well, spot fucking on. By taking into consideration the woman that her child will become instead of treating her with delusion-lined gloves, Bell effectively takes the sexualization — and our society's obsessive fetishization of youth and budding sexuality — off the table. After all: sex is what made little Lincoln and all the rest of us out there in the world (for the most part — sorry, IVF babies), so denying the existence of a very real, very integral part of the human experience is just plain counterintuitive and worth leaving in the past.

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