An ad for a clothing firm featuring a five-year-old boy with his toenails painted bright pink, has sparked some controversy.
The J Crew ad features Jenna Lyons, the chain’s president and creative director, and her son Beckett, 5.
Lyons is seen with a bottle of neon pink nail polish painting her son’s toenails under the headline, ”Saturday with Jenna… See how she and son Beckett go off duty in style.”
Lyons is quoted in the ad: “Lucky for me, I ended up with a boy whose favourite color is pink. Toenail painting is way more fun in neon.”
The image (left) was featured in an email sent to customers last week and has sparked quite the debate over gender identity in children.
A number of psychiatrists have slammed the ad, claiming that promotion of such an image “celebrates transgendered identity”.
According to a column by Dr. Keith Ablow for FoxNews.com, “This is a dramatic example of the way that our culture is being encouraged to abandon all trappings of gender identity.”
Another expert for Fox added that the ad is “blatant propaganda celebrating transgendered children.”
Jo B. Paoletti, author of Pink and Blue: Telling the Girls From the Boys in America, says the critics of the ad are overreacting.
“Lots of kids, say seven and under, might ask their parents for something that would seem to be cross gender, and I think most parents, especially in the privacy of their own home might think, what’s the big deal?”
What do you think?
Photo: JCrew.com
17 Comments
SO ridiculous! It’s an F-Nng COLOUR! No gender owns it. Gender identity? REALLY?? Because of a COLOUR. ARGH!
So if that ad featured a mother and her daughter, it would’ve been fine because girls naturally gravitate towards pink? I don’t even care for pink myself and I’m a girl, and I don’t buy my daughter pinky, girlie things because I think she should be allowed to celebrate her identity (cultural, gender and everything in between) the way she wants to, not the way society deems she should. Same goes for boys. If pink is his thing, then it’s his thing. It’s not right that he is expected to suppress his preferences to appease the masses because some people can’t handle any idea beyond the rigid, boys = blue, girls = pink stereotype.
People worry about the wrong things. A temporary toe painting where a child; sex excluded, expresses itself. What little boy or girl doesn’t want to emulate a loving mommy or daddy? Many kids want to put on makeup or paint their toes if mommy does. Realistically we have to worry when they start doing permanent things like piercings & tattoos when they hit the early teen years. What about the goth lifestyle? When those kids start painting their nails black do people get worried? What about the kid with the mohawk who still goes to church on Sundays to attend youth group? IS that wrong?
When a girl sports a pixie cut or insists she play hockey instead of dance do these same people stand up?
In the big picture aren’t we all trying to raise our kids, boys or girls, to be good caring people who can think for & express themselves? Generations ago pink was a boy colour, who changed it who put this limitation down, its a colour!!!
Today all 3Princes are at school in pink! Yes today is a special day its Pink Shirt day in Canada http://www.pinkshirtday.ca/ if I had hot pink polish they probably would have sported polish too, they have their hair sprayed pink & purple.
Worry about something worth worrying about, temporary nail polish on a boy is so little when you look at the big picture.
I think this is only a big deal if it is made a big deal. The logic that people employ in these situations seems flawed. I don’t think an activity like this (I.e. Dressing up) or the love of one colour over an other would have any impact on a kid. The suggestion that it would says more about a person’s own prejudice rather than any meaningful behavioural research. Get over it.
Complete storm in a pink teacup. Focus on the positive “Mom & Kid” moment. Gender identity is far more than just colour association.
Wow! I hadn’t heard of this. Glad you brought it to my attention. Like some pink nail polish will set him on a path to a gender-identity crisis!
I’m not sure I can say it any better than other commenters have already. So I’ll just add that my 5yo son is sporting bright red toenails this week. Because he asked. Because my toes are painted and he thinks it looks nice. He would have had hot pink fingernails for Day of Pink today if we’d had the time last night too.
No biggie. Let the kids express themselves in these harmless, non-permanent ways
How many of you know, including the so-called experts, that blue was the girl color and pink the boy color about 125 years ago. Those of you who are King Tut crazy should know that he had both finger and toe nails painted.
Should Jesus and Mohamed and Buddha be reviled because they did not wear trousers?
Culture changes, as do norms for genders. There are so many other things to worry about. Such as helping those in need.
My son has pink toe nails right now. He’s very proud of them.
Did you watch the Daily Show last night? Jon Stewart was so hilarious when he talked about this. I am so angry that this is even an issue. My son came home from camp one day with nail polish and guess what I did….TOOK PICTURES BECAUSE OH MY GOD IT WAS TOO CUTE.
No I missed it! Will have to see if I can watch online. Thanks for your comment 🙂
I think it’s so silly that anyone is making a big deal about this. Seriously. I’m thinking I have to blog about this, too, Maria!
Really? The people who get all angry about this need to look at the big picture b/c NO ONE ELSE CARES!!!
Let kids by kids!! Their imagination is a bazillion times better than ours. Seriously people.
I’d be more concerned if my kid was a bully than if he wore pink nail polish. Jeez
My toenails are blue — does that mean I have a transgender issue? Please. What a load of rubbish. We need to let children be and do and wear what colours they want and stop telling them them what they *should” be doing and wearing! And, really, let’s find some *real* issues to worry about!
First of all, it’s a 5 year old kid. Such a ridiculous “controversy”. Second of all, “blatant celebration of transgendered children”… because of could if you DO happen to have a transgendered child you’re supposed to make them feel total shame and keep the locked in a closet their whole lives… right? And another talking head recommend setting money aside for therapy. The only people who need therapy are the bozos who have an issue with what is clearly just an innocent mother and child moment.
This is one of those “controversies” that makes me wonder which real problems are being ignored because of all the attention it gets. Remember the mom whose son dressed up as a female cartoon character for Halloween? She was slammed for letting her son enjoy his fantasy world. So many people were uproarious about that. I don’t get it.
I wonder why the ad sparked so much controversy. Is it wrong to have fun with mum anymore? I even painted my nails green several years ago and my mum was the one who put it on!