Painting boys' toenails: yay or nay? Or whatever?

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

A post from Sheldon on CS reminded me of this: There's apparently some furor over a picture in a JCrew catalog showing the company's president and creative director painting her son's toenails hot pink.

Apparently this is causing a furor among some...people.

Frankly I couldn't care less. I wouldn't personally paint my own toenails, but what does somebody choosing to paint her son's hurt me? All I see in that picture is a woman and her son sharing love.

[NateSean]

If it's not against the law yet I say go for it. My aunts had me wear woman's underwear when I was five because I didn't have anything else clean at the time and it didn't kill me.

Nail polish can be removed and who is likely to see the kid's toenails outside of the house?

[Evandril]

Wow...really?!? Yet another reason for me *not* to watch faux 'news'...Though I couldn't watch the video, to see how bad the other services were taking it, admittedly

[Rageaholic]

TEH STOOPIDZ IT BURNZ!!!11

I mean I could understand if the mother was forcing her kid to paint his toe nails, but I don't get that from this article at all. Do these traditionalists have anything better to do than to get upset over a goddamn article? This is why I don't watch people like O'reilly.

[Mishi]

My husband was most amused when I told him that he'd unknowingly changed his gender and sexual identities by wearing nailpolish. Clearly he's wrong in thinking that playing dress-ups with our daughter was a normal part of parenting. Oh Noez! The sparkly pink nailpolish has corrupted him too!!!!111!!

[AdminAssistant]

I think Jon Stewart sums up my feelings on the issue nicely: http://www.hulu.com/watch/232385/the...y-went-to-hell

[BlaqueKatt]

Do these traditionalists have anything better to do than to get upset over a goddamn article?

traditionalist-um how about no, it's all marketing-the linked article explains pretty well.

social convention of 1884 dictated that boys wore dresses until age 6 or 7, they were functional and considered gender neutral.

Ladies’ Home Journal article in June 1918 said, “The generally accepted rule is pink for the boys, and blue for the girls. The reason is that pink, being a more decided and stronger color, is more suitable for the boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is prettier for the girl.

[Eisa]

Who cares if boys paint their toenails? If I don't, does that mean I'm NOT a proper girl?

[KnitShoni]

My husband was most amused when I told him that he'd unknowingly changed his gender and sexual identities by wearing nailpolish. Clearly he's wrong in thinking that playing dress-ups with our daughter was a normal part of parenting. Oh Noez! The sparkly pink nailpolish has corrupted him too!!!!111!!

If that were true, my dad and the dads of every woman I know have gender-identity issues. We ALL polished our dads' nails, put makeup on them, did their hair. It was part of play when we were growing up, and, as far as I knew, our dads just chalked it up to part of the package when raising girls. That went alongside teaching us how to throw a ball, take a hit in football, and climb a tree. And we did all this with both parents.

[Greenday]

Well, they are setting the kid up for some serious harassment if kids at school find out.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Um, so nail polish makes men not real men? I'm sure that Marilyn Manson would disagree with that statement, along with several glam rock types.

[Evandril]

Who cares if boys paint their toenails? If I don't, does that mean I'm NOT a proper girl?

You're online, obviously you're not a girl at all Don't you know there aren't any women online?

[Greenday]

You're online, obviously you're not a girl at all Don't you know there aren't any women online?

I tried to explain this to a co-worker today. He just couldn't get it.

[Eisa]

Oh, darn, I forgot about that.

Seriously, I'm so un-girly, though. I bite my nails, I don't wear makeup, I don't moisturize and spend 3 hours in the bathroom every day to primp, I don't wear pantyhose [I hate that shit ], I can barely walk in high heels...

Oh, and also. Bill Cosby must be a girl then. Remember when Rudy puts makeup on him in The Cosby Show?

Personally, I think nail polish on a guy is kind of cute.

[boringscreenname]

I have a son and a daughter. I don't even wear nail polish, so I don't paint my son's toenails. But if either one of my kids takes an interest in nail polish, I'd paint their toenails, regardless of gender. I don't see what the big deal is, you can always use socks to cover it up, if you don't want other people to notice or know.