Child Rearing 101: Would You Paint Your Son's Toenails Pink?

Would you paint your son's toenails at all?

As The Blaze blogged about yesterday, at least one mother would: Jenna Lyons, the president and creative director of J. Crew, the prim, proper, and preppy clothing brand.

In a feature on the website called "Saturday with Jenna," Lyons is pictured with her young son Beckett--and his toes are painted neon pink. In a caption nearby, Lyons declares, "Lucky for me I ended up with a boy whose favorite color is pink. Toenail painting is way more fun in neon.”

But some child rearing experts see foul play here. Dr. Keith Ablow, no stranger to us at The Blaze, reacted by noting, "This is a dramatic example of the way that our culture is being encouraged to abandon all trappings of gender identity."

He went on:

If you have no problem with the J. Crew ad, how about one in which a little boy models a sundress? What could possibly be the problem with that?

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? Why not make race the next frontier? What would be so wrong with people deciding to tattoo themselves dark brown and claim African-American heritage? Why not bleach the skin of others so they can playact as Caucasians?

Erin Brown of the Media Research Center said the ad was "blatant propaganda celebrating transgendered children."

But author Jo B. Paoletti, who wrote Pink and Blue: Telling the Girls From the Boys in America, asks "what's the big deal?"

"Lots of kids, say seven and under, might ask their parents for something that would seem to be cross gender, and I think most parents, especially in the privacy of their own home might think, what’s the big deal?"