Any one remember this ad that was going around in April? It caused quite a bit of controversy. You can read about some of that here.
People were upset that the mom in the ad was painting her young sons toenails. Not just painting them, no, painting them pink!
According to the article some think it promotes “gender confused boys” and that boys “wanting to act and dress like little girls is a growing trend.”
When this was all going on I thought it was very silly. How on earth could a little boy who wanted his toenails painted possibly be labeled as trans-gender? I chalked it up to those fundamental Christians who seemed to be terribly afraid that the gay community is looking to recruit or make them gay? I’m not sure what they are so afraid of anyway. My boys had never asked to have their toenails painted at that time, but I thought if they ever did I would probably do it. What would the harm be?
Flash forward to now.
We have a mama and two little boys with glittery blue toenails and they love it! K1 was the one to originally ask for painted nails. He’s very proud of them and not afraid to show them at all. K2 is a bit more reserved with them and has asked to have the color removed once, before we went somewhere.
So far no one but my grandma has said anything about it. K2 was talking on the phone to her and he told her about his toes. When I got back on the phone with her she said that I might want to be careful about that. When I asked why she said, well someone might make fun of him and you have to be careful to not, you know, make him too feminine. When I said I didn’t believe that painting the toes of my five-year old would make him gay, she said you never know. Then tried to say something like if they see something over and over they might want to try it. I think she meant that if they saw gay people they might want to be gay. I think that’s what she meant, maybe. I said either way I would love him unconditionally, to which she said of course you would but you know it’s an abomination to God.
I don’t think it has anything to do with being gay or transgendered at all. I think it has to do with me painting my toes and them thinking they are pretty and having no reason what so ever not to think it would be ok for them to have pretty toes too.
What do you think? Would you allow you little boy to have painted toenails?
The Agnostic Wife 
Nice picture! Hell yes, if I remembered how, I haven’t painted my nails in years!
Unfortunately my 8 yo son has *learned that kind of stuff is for girls so I doubt he would ask.
* been told by his brother and sister, whose words are Gospel of course. TV also perpetuates this stereotype.
I can only imagine what my dad, who isn’t religious but who is conservative, would say. I would pay to see his reaction!
Go sparkly toe boys!
hmmm.. Maybe a little toe nail painting is in order? I’m sure after a while they will notice that boys usually don’t have painted toes and then again maybe they will notice and not care.
The thing that really drives me crazy about this is that if it was a picture of a dad and his daughter and she was wearing his old plaid shirt and they were going fishing or [insert masculine stereotype here] no one would care. I spent at least 3 years of my life wearing my brother’s clothes because he is older than me and I thought he was the epitome of cool. Somehow, some way my appearance [gasp] did not alter my sexual orientation or inner make-up.
I think there’s still a lot of questions and unknowns surrounding sexual orientation and that makes people wary. I can understand where they are coming from but I think it’s silly and all of your toes look cute 🙂
Mainly, for me, fashion is such a subjective and ephemeral thing that the idea the painting nails would cause some sort “gender confusion” is utterly laughable. Boy colors and girl colors? In which century? Which decade? The standards and expectations move around. Lace and ruffles are standard elements of men’s clothing – not at the moment, but hell below! Look at the history!
The idea that there’s some intrinsic male or female quality to any of this is ridiculous.
So true and I bet all you men are waiting impatiently for some of the ruffly things with tights to come back into style!
Give the chance to wear a smallsword with it, and I am soooo there!
Of course it’s not a problem if they’d like their toes painted! I actually let my twins paint each other’s toenails as long as an adult is there to supervise and they’re either in the bathroom or kitchen to prevent polish from getting on the carpet. 🙂
Of course! When I was in India I saw men with painted toe-nails all the time. They also wore eye-liner and sparkly jeans with embroidered flowers on them. I wore pants once and an elderly woman refused to believe I was female. Gender stereotypes can blind us to reality.
Once I put a flower behind my ear to have it taken off because it was “too masculine”. Only men wore flowers behind their ears. Women had to wear them pinned to the back of their heads. Somehow, no matter where I put the flowers I was still the same person.
My eldest girl has always loved cars and motors. A friend told her that girls aren’t supposed to like cars so I made up a character called Princess Mechanic who drives around on her motorcycle and rescues people whose cars have broken down. Now she is ‘allowed’ to like cars again. Good on you for allowing your little guys to have fun with their toes. Hopefully their world will be bigger for it.
India sounds very interesting! I would be all kinds of confused in India I suppose and probably being called “too masculine” as well. I LOVE the idea of Princess Mechanic!
I love the picture! Just love it! Makes me smile remembering the day my husband aka Biker Dude let our daughter, then about age 7 paint his toenails. As far as I know, it didn’t make him gay. 😉
Zoe, what a sweet memory! Daddy has not had painted toenails yet, but I imagine if they wanted to do it he would be game. 🙂