Last year a J.Crew ad sparked a
great deal of controversy. Conservatives seethed in fury and lashed out with
words of hate. Did the ad show nudity? No. Did it show drug use? No. Did it
show some form of abuse? Not at all. What did it show? J.Crew president Jenna
Lyons laughing and playing with her young son whose toenails were painted
bright pink. Under the photo was a quote from Jenna: “Lucky for me, I ended up
with a boy whose favorite color is pink. Toenail painting is way more fun in
neon.”
To the conservatives at Fox News,
this ad was an assault on family values and gender roles. Fox News’
psychiatrist Keith Ablow argued that this advertisement promoted ‘transgenderism’
and encouraged parents to force their children to explore cross-gender
behaviors and preferences. He claimed that encouraging a small boy to paint his
toenails, much less in pink, would lead to a lifetime of negative psychological
consequences and severe gender identity confusion. Furthermore, he claimed that
the ad is cultural propaganda intended to persuade people to ignore traditional
gender roles and instead become a gender-neutral society.
Here are two quotes that I found to
be exceptional idiotic:
“Well, how about the fact that encouraging the choosing of gender identity, rather than suggesting our children become comfortable with the ones that they got at birth, can throw our species into real psychological turmoil—not to mention crowding operating rooms with procedures to grotesquely amputate body parts?”“And while that may seem like no big deal, it will be a very big deal if it turns out that neither gender is very comfortable anymore nurturing children above all else, and neither gender is motivated to rank creating a family above having great sex forever and neither gender is motivated to protect the nation by marching into combat against other men and risking their lives.”
I read this article when it came
out and I was naturally overcome with anger at the narrow-minded and hateful
ideas spewed by Fox News. The idea that by allowing children to express
themselves in ways that do not conform to antiquated and sexist traditional
gender roles will somehow result in negative psychological distress is
absolutely asinine. To restrict children into ‘appropriate’ gender roles seems
to be significantly more harmful than allowing them to like whatever they
happen to like. The “doctor” even declares that Jenna should start saving money
so she can pay for her son’s inevitable gender confusion, as well as other
people in his life that are negatively impacted by her decisions. I cannot
believe that anyone is ignorant enough to believe this. I disagree with the
very notion that we even have these tiny gender categories filled with rules
regarding one’s personality, likes/dislikes, activities, physical appearances,
and social roles. To me, it is absolutely pathetic that anyone could possibly
believe this, much less spew it with hate as Fox News did.
I wonder what Dr. Ablow would think
of this—My best friend when I was little was a boy. He used to play dress up
with me, dance around in my tutus, bake cookies in my Easy Bake Oven, and play
with makeup. He was in no way confused about his gender, nor is he now. In
fact, his masculinity is on par with traditional male ideals—he is extremely
muscular, an incredible football player, ambitious, and is dating a beautiful
girl. Looks like his “transgenderism” behavior in childhood had no negative
impact on his adult life (as dictated by traditional gender roles and
conservatives). Go figure.
The ad:
The article:
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