The economy? Thriving. Global warming? More like global balminess. Cancer? 100% treatable with Flintstones chewable vitamins. Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya? Peaceful tourist destinations known primarily for their excellent cuisine and the locals’ eagerness to give soothing back rubs to anyone who looks remotely tense.
I assume.
I mean, all that must be true, right? Every other significant problem the world has ever faced must be nothing more than an unpleasant memory if anyone can spare one erg for outrage about this:
That’s right. It’s a five year old boy wearing pink toenail polish. Feel free to step away from the computer if you need to compose yourself. I’ll just wait here.
There actually are people upset about this. FOX News tweeted their fair and balanced concern as to whether the ad “cross[es] the line”. Their contributor, psychiatrist (and Glen Beck baby daddy) warns the mom to “set aside money for psychotherapy for the kid”. And the ultra-nutty Media Research Center is pretty sure it’s all a plot by Michelle Obama.
The good news is that the teeth gnashers are pretty much in the minority on this one. I had to do a fair amount of googling and drill down through a pretty thick layer of “You’ve got to be kidding me” to find links to the primary sources above. A majority of FOX News Twitter users (FOX News Twitter users!) say the alarmists are overreacting. And 100% of WIRED GeekDad bloggers’ ten year old sons told about this story had their own nails painted in protest, adding “Take that, outraged people!”
I will say that as silly and reactionary as the outraged people look on this one, the quote from the mom in the copy does make me a little uncomfortable. While “Lucky for me I ended up with a boy whose favorite color is pink.” suggests that she is sensitive to the kid’s preferences, and isn’t simply dressing him up to suit herself, I don’t like how it puts the spotlight on her enjoyment of the interaction. I don’t want to overstate this; the boy seems to be having a great time too. But as someone who often has a front row seat for the “Parents With Poor Ego Boundaries Show”, it is a squick point for me.
Tangentially Related Anecdote
I may have a greater than average affinity for this story because of a deep, dark secret I’ve been carrying around for more than fifteen years: I kind of like having my fingernails painted. More precisely, I had my fingernails painted once, and I kind of liked it that one time. It was at a Halloween carnival at the church I attended in college. One of the girls in the youth group was running a nail painting booth, and she managed to evoke enough sympathy in me over her lack of customers to persuade me to let her paint my nails. I’m sure that much of my fond recollection of this incident stems from it having been an affectionate moment between friends (yes, she was a young girl; get over it), but if I’m being perfectly honest, I really did like the way the painted nails looked on me. So I get why young Beckett digs it.
