J. Crew Ad: Boy With Pink Toenails

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J. Crew Ad With Boy's Pink Toenails Creates Stir
Social Conservatives Call Ad 'Propaganda;' Transgender Groups Say Reaction is 'Ridiculous'

By SUSAN DONALDSON JAMES
April 13, 2011

A mother paints her son's toenails hot pink because it's his favorite color. Does that mean he'll become gay or transgender? That is the controversy surrounding a J. Crew ad that is swirling around the Internet.

It began when a photo of J. Crew's president and creative director Jenna Lyons painting the toenails of her son Beckett in an ad was sent to customers last week in a feature, "Saturday with Jenna."

"Lucky for me I ended up with a boy whose favorite color is pink," says the caption. "Toenail painting is way more fun in neon."

Social conservatives reacted with outrage. Fox News' Dr. Keith Ablow ran an opinion piece on the issue and Erin Brown of the right-leaning Media Research Center called the ad "blatant propaganda celebrating transgendered children."

"Not only is Beckett likely to change his favorite color as early as tomorrow, Jenna's indulgence (or encouragement) could make life hard for the boy in the future," Brown wrote. J. Crew, known for its tasteful and modest clothing, apparently does not mind exploiting Beckett behind the facade of liberal, transgendered identity politics."

Reaction to the reaction was appalled at the notion that the child was being "turned" gay or transgender.

One of Brown's online readers wrote, "A small child, with no secondary sexual characteristics, cannot be considered 'transgendered' or even a transvestite. On the other hand, a fully grown person such as yourself can definitely be considered a small-minded a**hole."

Another noted that Speaker of the House John Boehner loves pink ties -- does that make him gay?

Advocacy groups are also fighting back, calling the reaction to the ad "ridiculous."

"This is not how the world works and not how children work, and not even how trans advocacy works," said Mara Keisling, executive director of National Center for Transgender Equality.

"Complaints about the ad are totally blown out of proportion," she said. "It's just a cute ad with a cute mom-and-son scene and the kid wants to wear pink nail polish...It could be the kids just wants to spend time with his mom."

A report last week by the Williams Institute, a UCLA think tank that focuses on lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgender issues, reveals that an estimated 4 percent of Americans are gay and of that only about .3 percent are transgender.

Most research on gender identity and sexual orientation concludes that neither is a choice. Nor can they be shaped by a parent's wishes, said Dr. Jack Drescher, a New York City psychiatrist.

Drescher, who wrote the 2010 paper, "Queer Diagnoses," which was published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior, serves on the American Psychiatric Association's committee that is addressing sexual and gender identity disorder for the DSM-V. DSM-V is psychiatry's encyclopedia of behavioral diagnoses.

"I can say with 100 percent certainty that a mother painting her children's toe nails pink does not cause transgenderism or homosexuality or anything else that people who are social conservatives would worry about," he said.

"First of all, no one knows what causes transgenderism, and the idea that painting toenails pink causes it has no scientific validity," said Drescher. "What we do know is many people feel that it is their role to police gender and tell them what correct behavior is for boys and girls."

Feminist notions that gender is culturally determined are also erroneous, according to Drescher. Most studies showed that if boys were given Barbie dolls, they would "use them as if they were guns," he said.

"Certainly research shows that there are gender preferences in the way kids like to play, and boys may be rougher than girls," he said. "But then there is a broad range of children who don't fit into larger categories and for some families it causes panic and for some, it's not a problem at all."

Friction can result when someone outside the family -- a friend or perhaps a "horrified grandmother" -- tries to tell parents "what is right and wrong."

Drescher said there were "many pathways" to becoming gay or transgender and "not one size fits all." Some know when they are young and others could never have predicted their later feelings of sexual orientation or gender identity.

"The idea that a parent is indulging a child's interest in unconventional gender behavior does something to the child has no scientific basis," he said.

Meanwhile, J. Crew officials had no comment on the pink toenail controversy, but one parent wondered online, "Why would I want my son to paint his toenails pink? Why would I want my son to paint his toenails at all?"
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/crew-ad-bo ... 903&page=1

So I saw this story this morning and I found it quite interesting. Being a mom of 2 small kids, one boy and one girl, the issue of gender molding come up somewhat frequently. Sometimes, my boy is interested in princesses and sometimes my girl is into dinosaurs. To me, it's no big deal - they're kids. Many others see it quite differently. My son got some nasty stares when he chose to wear a pink hat not too long ago, but yet when my daughter wears a shirt with trucks, no one seems to care at all.

How do others feel about this one?

I think it's ridiculous... When my son was little he wanted his nails painted too. So what? I'd paint his nails and he'd go out and bash some toy cars around.

Whenever I hear stuff like this I'm reminded of the Ann Rule book that tells the story of a 5 year old boy who got in trouble because he was caught wearing pretty red high heels that he found in the neighboring dump... He later grew up to be a serial killer who cut off women's feet an froze them in pretty high heeled shoes..

Jeez, If your kid wants his nails painted or wants to play in high heels... just let him. I don't see the problem with it and making him feel that there is a problem with it could be way more damaging.

Here is a blog post with a similar issue that got a lot of press.

Nerdy Applebottom

Other: IDGAS.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=idgas

You have to consider that we're talking about a TV commercial, so the ordinary child's curiousity argument goes right out the window.

There is a lot of psychological study conducted for an advertisement (particularly when it is a large company). Things are rarely spontaneous.

I think this is mere curiosity and it's not gonna make the kid turn gay. I'm not sure about where being a tranny comes from, but homosexuality is genetic.

I thought this was interesting:

As a Brit, I never hear J. Crew before now. So am doing a bit research into the company.
I may need to ask you yanks questions, I am going to come from this from a business angle.
In my research I pick up something, so I'll get back to my research before commenting.

J. Crew reported a 14% loss in sales in the 3/4 of last year. Back in Nov. they were involved in a leveraged buyout.
Am just wondering if any one had picked on any other changes in J. Crew between Nov. to now?

As my what I know so far I get the impression that they used this ad as a PR stunt to help improve there sales.