Fox News Goes After J.Crew's Jenna Lyons For Painting Son's Toenails Pink

First, Vivienne Westwood. Now, Jenna Lyons, Creative Director of J.Crew. Is Fox News branching out into fashion reporting and nobody told us?

The news outlet decided to take on a recent feature on jcrew.com showing Lyons polishing her son Beckett's little piggies, accompanied by the text, "Lucky for me I ended up with a boy whose favorite color is pink. Toenail painting is way more fun in neon."

Cue the "experts." Talking head numero uno, Dr. Keith Ablow asserts, "This is a dramatic example of the way that our culture is being encouraged to abandon all trappings of gender identity." Numero dos -- Media Research Center's Erin Brown -- called the pic "blatant propaganda celebrating transgendered children."

To be fair (and balanced), Fox News also found some lefty author who was all like, who cares, but enough about her. What does she know? Her boy child probably has a lovely bubblegum-hued pedicure, too.

J.Crew declined to comment, other than recommending you use a quick-dry topcoat. Kidding.

Comments

[TealThumb]

02:38 PM on 05/04/2011

Creating controversy where none need exists. My brothers (40 years ago now) and my sons (20 years ago now) both wore my lipstick and my nail polish. In fact, my 22 year old son will still let his 17 and 13 year old sisters paint his nails, any color - pink, blue, green, red, black and white. Is he gay? No. And even if he were, do I think it 'happened' because he wore polish and lipstick? No.

Find somewhere else to create drama, eh?

[Maya Rose Coale]

12:11 AM on 04/25/2011

Here goes:
My brother has grown up with girls, playing with me and my friends. He wore my costumes, played with my barbies (granted he was also obsessed with trucks and sports), and I'm sure his nails were painted at some point. There is even a picture of him and his friend Bella both in princess costumes. My brother is now 11 and he plays basketball, baseball, and football. He also doesn't have any interest in painting his nails anymore. I guess my point here is the fact that this kid's mom painted his toenails is not going to affect whether he is straight or gay, nor should that matter. You could raise your son with sports and guns and he could still turn out gay and vice-versa. So to sum it up, get a life Fox!

[bynddrvn5]

01:23 PM on 04/21/2011

You have to really wonder about the mental health of people who read this much into a young kid painting his nails.

Some people really need to get a freaking life!

[Thaag Tidestalker]

02:55 PM on 04/18/2011

The little guy is just having fun with Mommy and enjoying stuff Mommy likes doing. I think the ad is cute.

[Fritz60]

05:20 AM on 04/18/2011

I find it so interesting that, with everything else going on in the world, some people choose to spend time criticizing the color of a little boy's nails rather than praising parents who spend time loving their children. Finding evil in joy is the way of the cowardly and fearful. This guy's going to buy some polish tomorrow and, for the first time, bring some color to his toes. . .

[tek1]

11:54 AM on 04/17/2011

Ok...here's how we handle this.

10 years from now we ask this boy if he likes girls and still feels like a boy. If he answers no to either (which may be coincidental) we all stand in a circle around Dr. Dipwad and tell him what a genius he is. If the boy answers yes to both, then we strip Dr. Dipwad of his license to practice medicine FOREVER. And, he is also banned from all talk shows.

[Red45]

04:30 PM on 04/18/2011

Love it. I'm with you. f+f

[spartanmom]

01:59 PM on 04/16/2011

This all makes me so glad that once, when he was around 5, I put eyeshadow and lipstick on my son.

He grew up to join the army, become a sapper and be a little bit of a hero in A-stan.

If I hadn't he might have ended up a mass mµrderer.
Maybe I should have gone for the blush and mascara (sigh).

[LifeChangeStartsNow]

05:04 PM on 04/16/2011

spartanmom, you got yourself fan no. 59 baby!

[one1byke]

10:14 PM on 04/17/2011

why did you put eye shadow and lipstick on him?
why do you want to put blush and mascara on him?

I'd join the military and field mines, too.

[Ortho Stice]

06:30 PM on 04/30/2011

Once. She said once. It's not like Hemingway's mom dressing him in girl's clothing until he was six.

[derevolutionary]

01:51 PM on 04/16/2011

This is coming off as Fox News running low on ideas. Now that the world hasn't ended in an apocalypse and no fire and brimstone came shooting forth from the ground they've ended up on toe nails. Next up? Parents encouraging their kids to be gay by letting them do their hair the way they want to. Frightening.

[Gail Humphrey]

01:49 PM on 04/16/2011

There is a famous case of a boy, because of a circumcision problem was surgically changed to a girl using homones and dresses but when he became a teenager, he knew he was a boy.
I guess the doctors failed to paint his toe nails pink.

[Red45]

04:34 PM on 04/18/2011

That's actually happened several times. Doctors should not be allowed to assign gender identity surgically or any other way. If there is no life-threatening aspect to being born with genital differences, leave them alone and let THEM decide their gender identity when they're old enough to know. Doctors should never, ever be allowed to make those decisions and do those surgeries.

[Aaron Pozdol]

01:46 PM on 04/22/2011

As I understand it, doctors have stopped offering this as an option.

[inkhosi]

05:03 PM on 04/15/2011

Wow. This is wrong.

[davyou5]

01:17 PM on 04/26/2011

This is not wrong this is only your point of view. There is nothing wrong with it.

[BunnyRabbit4]

02:42 PM on 04/15/2011

As a gay person I would like to say that most of us do care one way or another about toenails. We don't equate Toenails with anything other than yet another attempt to use US to take attention away from the important issues. Like so many others, my current "gay agenda" is stopping the radiation flow from the Fukushima nuclear power plant and helping the people of Japan. That is what I want to see on the news 24/7, not this.

[gobills 15]

12:26 PM on 04/15/2011

People....WATCH THE FOX NEWS VIDEO. They don't give any dominating opinion, they show views from BOTH SIDES. I mean, the title of the segment was "You Decide"!! Fox News is just an easy target for provincial people.

[Oneandoneandone]

05:56 PM on 04/15/2011

Fox isn't the only news outlet going after this lady for having quality time with her kid. It shouldn't even be on You Decide. It's a non-issue. Must have been a slow news day for them to even comment on it at all. I remember getting together with my friend to paint her little brothers' toes pink, purple and red. We also put make up them. They're both grown men who aren't the least bit feminine, now. But even if they were absolutely flaming, what's the problem with it? Why is it bad if your son turns out to be feminine, gay, or feminine and gay? I still don't understand how this even ended up on any news outlet. The Daily Show's segment on Toemageddon is really funny, by the way. He highlights one conservative doctor's opinion on the issue very well.

[gobills 15]

07:09 PM on 04/15/2011

Agreed. And as a doctor myself, I can tell you that this doctor's opinion is garbage. While there can be some affects on personality of altering gender identity at such a young age, it certainly does not make them gay...in any way. This doctor should know that there is plenty of research showing distinct changes in brain anatomy, and hormonal activity literally before baby's are born that strongly correlate with being gay later in life. I'm straight myself, but everything "scientific" or medical I've read on the topic points to homosexuals being, for lack of a better term, "born that way". And aside from all of this, yes, probably a slow news day. It's amazing how ALL MAINSTREAM MEDIA makes such a huge deal about lifestyles of gays and lesbians...let people do what makes them happy and let them be.

[veganzombie1]

08:58 AM on 04/15/2011

You know, I would have love to have my mum spend more time with me like this picture when I was young instead of working so hard just to put food on the table and a roof over our heads. I would have let her put whatever color nail polish she wanted so she could spend more time with me.

Fox "News" make me so damn angry...

[Racquel Wilson]

01:40 AM on 04/17/2011

I agree. I am conservative on some things and liberal on others, but Fox News sucks!
It's a great ad and a great pic and J.Crew just got a flood of great new customers thanks to Fox not being able to find any real news to report.

[MattMrdck]

04:00 PM on 04/18/2011

well said

[dzadzey]

08:06 AM on 04/15/2011

Really?

[whispurr]

01:31 AM on 04/15/2011

Every person I know who is a Fox news viewer is extremely paranoid. Is this Fox's doing, or do paranoid people tend to tune into Fox? Not that it really matters. The point still is: Fox fanatics are nuts!

[LuxorLava]

03:16 AM on 04/15/2011

Well there was that study recently that conservative brains have a bigger fear center in the brain. So that makes sense, more fear, more paranoia, more irrational ideas & behaviors! They are born with cukoo clocks in their brains, its sad really, they can't just be normal...