<p>Anybody else see the ad with the little boy with hot pink toenails? I thought the ad was cute, not really getting all the controversy.</p>
<p>It’s a “whatever” for me…on both sides of the issue…the ad itself and the current fallout. This looks like a happy fun loving kid. In an article his mother said his favorite color is pink. There are simply somethings that you can’t control (favorite colors, the prized “blankie” that was in your opinion, the ugliest one of all you have…etc). Yes, the mom could say no to the polish, but what purpose does that serve? You have people all over the place being just dumb…(It will make him gay, etc) This little boy will grow up to be who he is meant to be, pink toes or not.</p>
<p>Well said! Regarding hot pink, a few years ago I was coaching middle school swimming and all of the boys were obsessed with hot pink. They wore hot pink board shorts, hot pink shoelaces, bracelets, hats and anything else they could find. I got a kick out of it, but remember thinking that my son and his friends, 6 or 8 years older than these boys, wouldn’t be caught dead in pink anything!</p>
<p>Haven’t seen the ad, but my d and s were 19 months apart in age. When my preschool daughter wanted her toes painted, her little brother wanted the same. I did so without a worry. My husband expressed a doubt when he first saw both with painted toes, but I suggested to just let it go.</p>
<p>Son’s an adult now - quit wanting to copy his sister pretty much once he was no longer a toddler. Definitely not gay, but imo painting his little toenails along with mine and his sister’s didn’t make an iota of difference one way or the other.</p>
<p>agreed . . . as a culture we tend to be more rigid/stuck about indications of gender among small children . . . wifely tells story about an Italian (?) visiting prof with small children years ago who was honestly confused at the attitude she was getting from other moms about her dressing her small boys in “girly” colors . . . she wondered aloud in class why our culture was so adamant about enforcing strict rules on what was appropriate attire for toddlers . . to her it seemed like small stuff.</p>
<p>If you asked a friend of mine, you would hear how this is the beginning of the end of the world. Boys and girls are loosing their identities because boundaries are being crossed EVERY day! Personally, kids go through many phases before they “find” themselves. Pink toenail polish? There are worse things to be worried about.</p>
<p>I got this email at the end of last week? and didn’t even consider it unusual or comtroversial…see how much I care…</p>
<p>My daughter dressed in boy’s clothes (like, literally, boy’s clothes, not girl’s clothes that looked like boys) until she was 12…</p>
<p>I don’t appreciate the implication of a “double-standard” in the controversy; it’s “cute” for a girl to do boy stuff but “abnormal” for a boy to do girl stuff??</p>
<p>Generations ago, all small children wore “dresses” until they were potty trained (I think.) As a child I was amused by my father’s schoolbooks from the 30s (Baby Ray).</p>
<p>When my S was a toddler, he thought he would get to wear dresses when he was “big” like his sister (2 years older.) After a while he figured out the girl/boy thing.</p>
<p>I loved how happy the little boy in the ad looked. If only our kids could be so joyful all the time! Pink toenails - who cares? That is a decision between the boy and his mother. I assume that people who have problems with the ad really have other issues that they are dealing with. Makes me think that bullying of kids who are “different” must start with the parents.</p>
<p>An assumption that being gay or transgender is a problem?</p>
<p>An assumption that present day, western, societal male/female stereotypes for dress and decoration have anything to do with someone’s sexual orientation or gender identification?</p>
<p>An assumption we have control over who our children turn out to be as adults?</p>
<p>A boy in pink nail polish pushes some people’s buttons. A girl in pink nail polish pushes other people’s buttons.</p>
<p>I teach art at the elementary level and am often dismayed at the “gender assignment” that is applied to colors or subject matter. It definitely is more limiting to the boys than the girls which is, in and of itself, sexist. It implies that things feminine (or determined to be feminine such as the color pink) are inferior and below contempt. I try to talk about this in my classes a bit without making a big deal out of it. I do have a lot of boys and girls that are very comfortable with themselves and are happy to express themselves using whatever venue is available and to their liking. I try to use them as role models. Pink is white with red added, for goodness sake. Besides, I think it is very sexy to see a man in a pink shirt or tie. It speaks to his confidence and security.</p>
<p>A pink shirt isnt the same as pink toenails. Men using any color at all on any of their nails is a gender taboo.</p>
<p>nail polish: Steven Tyler, Ozzie Osbourne, Dave Navarro, Kirk Hammett…</p>
<p>and I remember a young Mick in make-up… </p>
<p>taboo or mainstream? I guess it depends on your pov?</p>
<p><a href=“The Museum Network”>The Museum Network;
<p>or period of history?</p>
<p>I have to admit that when I heard that Justin Bieber has a nail polish line, I wondered why a boy would sell a girls’ product. I guess I’ve been in a bubble.</p>
<p>And along the lines of ‘pink’ for males, DH’s family was quite opinionated when I bought him a pink polo shirt (very ‘in’ in the 80’s). They still talk about it.</p>
<p>People are so weird.</p>
<p><<rodney>> My almost 15 y.o. DS still wears boys clothes. She’s still very much into the tomboy stage. </rodney></p>
<p>My DS has a gay friend whose mom thinks my daughter is gay and is dating her daughter. This all based on the fact that my DS dresses “like a guy”.</p>
<p>The only thing it has done for us is open up the conversation on what is OK in our family. </p>
<p>Glee had a great episode where Kurt’s father had “the talk” with his gay son. We used that to talk about how it’s unimportant about “what” you are but more important that you be in a healthy, happy relationship.</p>
<p>The people pushing this as controversial, over at Fox News, are truly quite loathsome. As is Dr. Keith Ablow, or whatever his name is. (Didn’t he have a TV show that got canceled?)</p>
<p>Little boys having polish put on their toenails for fun isn’t even particularly unusual, let alone the beginning of the end of Western Civilization.</p>
<p>As others have pointed out, pink was considered a “boy” color, and blue a girls’ color, until the 1920’s or 1930’s. Probably because pink was considered a sort of juvenile version of red, which historically was always associated with men in European and American culture. Whereas blue was generally associated with women, due to (if I recall correctly) its association with Mary.</p>
<p>And pink can still considered to be very much an appropriate male color, at least for shirts.</p>
<p>I’m glad that 99% of the comments I’ve seen on this story elsewhere have agreed that calling this controversial is both ludicrous and pathetic. (My favorite comment was one from the mother of a baby boy, saying something like “if you want to mess with your in-laws’ minds, there’s nothing more fun than dressing your baby son in pink when they’re around.”)</p>
<p>Anyway, this ad has nothing to do with celebrating transgender children, contrary to what one frothing-at-the-mouth religious right commenter has fulminated. And if it did, so what? God knows transgender children (and people in general) could use some positive reinforcement instead of the endless contempt and ridicule – and physical violence – that society generally metes out to them.</p>
<p>Love the comment about the in-laws! I remember a photo of Prince William when he was a baby, wearing a peach smocked bubble. When my son was born three years later, I told my husband and mother-in-law that I was going to make him an outfit like Prince William’s. Freaked them both out!</p>
<p>Faux News ginned up this “controversy” for PR purposes. A reprehensible organization with a tragic level of influence.</p>
<p>Pink used to be the masculine color while blue was feminine:</p>
<p>“In Western culture, the practice of assigning pink to an individual gender began in the 1920s[12] or earlier.[13] From then until the 1940s, pink was considered appropriate for boys because being related to red it was the more masculine and decided color, while blue was considered appropriate for girls because it was the more delicate and dainty color, or related to the Virgin Mary.[14][15][16] Since the 1940s, the societal norm was inverted; pink became considered appropriate for girls and blue appropriate for boys, a practice that has continued into the 21st century.[17]”</p>
<p>[Pink</a> - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink]Pink”>Pink - Wikipedia)</p>