If you study men for long enough, you just might find yourself feeling sorry for them. For all of the power they wield in the world, many of them lack a certain level of self-awareness. I’m convinced this issue of self-knowledge is a result of men adhering to society’s limiting rules on how masculinity should be … performed.
Throughout history, and even today, there are steep penalties for violating these gender norms. Thankfully, times are slowly changing; and with them, the definitions of masculinity are expanding. One father recently had to prove this point to his son’s teacher on something quite frivolous, but obviously necessary.
3-Year-Old Ashton shared a message from his teacher with his parents.
Ashton, a 3-year-old from California, came home from school upset one day. He told his parents that his preschool teacher informed him that “painting your nails is only for girls.” Ashton’s dad Christian Shearhod, who goes by @mr.shearhod on TikTok, made a show of being appalled by the suggestion. Then he defied that message by taking his son to the nail salon. He recorded the experience for the internet.
Ashton decided on a mani-pedi.
Ashton and his parents gleefully walked into the nail salon. Ashton got to choose his own color: a hot pink. As he excitedly waited for his turn, someone asked Ashton if he wanted to do his hands or his feet. He said, “My hands and my feet.” There are nails on both and Ashton made sure he got the works.
'Let boys like what they like,' Christian wrote.
Once his manicure was done, Ashton blew on his nails to help the polish dry more quickly. Christian was surprised by the move, not entirely sure where his son might have learned this.
At the end, he absolutely loved his mani-pedi. Christian closed out the video with this message: “Let little boys like what they like … trucks, Spider-Man, Paw Patrol &&& maybe painting his nails.”
Commenters wondered if Christian spoke to the teacher.
Christian’s comments were filled with support. But there were a few people who wondered if he had any additional and more direct confrontation with Ashton’s teacher.
“This is amazing but I'd be having a talk with his teacher too,” one user wrote. “There was NO need in the teacher saying this to that sweet boy.”
Christian did show himself speaking to another employee at the school asking that this type of messaging be avoided in the future. And in the caption for the video, he wrote: “So before anyone tries to cancel his school; we have to remember that different cultures have different gender norms. & His teachers love him and are really so good to him! As a teacher myself I know his teacher probably thought she was helping him and I highly doubt there was any malicious intent. We’re all on the same page now, thank y’all for all the supportive comments.”
But there was a tad bit of ignorance that Christian handled perfectly.
Still, there was also some ignorance on TikTok.
In the comments someone asked, “Soo he is gay?” Christian had the perfect response. “My son is literally three years old. He can’t be gay because he doesn’t have a sexuality yet. I’m not going to assign him and you’re not going to assign him a sexuality because he likes feminine things, things outside of his typical gender norm. That’s literally sexualizing a child and that’s something we are not going to do," he said in a follow-up video.
Boom! Perfectly stated.
