10/24/17
When Your Son Wants to Wear Nail Polish…

Show him this!

Em’s six year old is a cool, creative kid who occasionally likes to wear nail polish and hair dye. He also happens to be a boy. This — surprise, surprise! — means he’s been teased multiple times at school for it with the refrain “Only girls do that!” It’s a narrow world-view based on traditional, stereotypical, and often arbitrary gender roles that’s passed down from parents to their kids, then regurgitated on playgrounds, and spread like a case of lice among impressionable children grappling with identity-formation:

If I’m a boy, and boys don’t wear nail polish (play with dolls/talk about their feelings/express sad emotions), then I guess I can never wear nail polish (play with dolls/talk about my feelings/express sad emotions). Better start making fun of any boys breaking the ‘rules’!

But come on, what kid wouldn’t want to wear nail polish if given the freedom to?

When Em’s awesome, lilac-haired, tattooed sister-in-law Kat caught wind of the situation, she wrote this:

Aside from wanting to murder, my heart broke for the little guy. I know he’ll be fine but I made this for him, and his sister too, just as a little extra reminder that there are some bad ass guys out there with super cool hair and painted nails!
Attached was the below graphic. It’s a tribute to creative expression, fierce originality, and social bravery — all qualities we should encourage our kids not to make fun of but to embrace!

When Your Son Wants to Wear Nail Polish - EMandLO.com

 

How NOT to raise little gender police officers:
10 Quick Lessons from “Parenting Beyond Pink & Blue”



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