Who ever through J. Crew would end up in the culture wars? But now the fashion company's president and creative director Jenna Lyons is getting the once-over from conservatives, led by psychologist Dr. Keith Ablow, who freaked out over the latest Jenna's Picks e-mailing from J. Crew, where Lyons has a cute picture of Lyons and her son Beckett and the caption "Quality Time. ‘Lucky for me, I ended up with a boy whose favorite color is pink. Toenail painting is way more fun in neon.’" Ablow frowns in his FoxNews.com Health column, "Yeah, well, it may be fun and games now, Jenna, but at least put some money aside for psychotherapy for the kid—and maybe a little for others who’ll be affected by your 'innocent' pleasure."
Ablow, friend of Glenn Beck, continues, "This is a dramatic example of the way that our culture is being encouraged to abandon all trappings of gender identity—homogenizing males and females when the outcome of such 'psychological sterilization' [my word choice] is not known. In our technology-driven world—fueled by Facebook, split-second Prozac prescriptions and lots of other assaults on genuine emotion and genuine relationships and actual consequences for behavior—almost nothing is now honored as real and true Increasingly, this includes the truth that it is unwise to dress little girls like miniature adults (in halter tops and shorts emblazoned with PINK across the bottoms) and that it is unwise to encourage little boys to playact like little girls."
If only Ablow knew that pink was actually a color meant for boys less than a hundred years ago! According to a Smithsonian Magazine article:
The march toward gender-specific clothes was neither linear nor rapid. Pink and blue arrived, along with other pastels, as colors for babies in the mid-19th century, yet the two colors were not promoted as gender signifiers until just before World War I—and even then, it took time for popular culture to sort things out.
For example, a Ladies’ Home Journal article in June 1918 said, “The generally accepted rule is pink for the boys, and blue for the girls. The reason is that pink, being a more decided and stronger color, is more suitable for the boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is prettier for the girl.” Other sources said blue was flattering for blonds, pink for brunettes; or blue was for blue-eyed babies, pink for brown-eyed babies, according to Paoletti.
Yeah, those men who grew up to fight in World War II were real wimps! Gawker notices, "Some other moron is upset about this too, so that's good"—the "moron"'s post is titled "J.CREW Pushes Transgendered Child Propaganda."
Here's an Oprah video of a day in Lyons' life. She lives in Brooklyn, home of the infamous "boy's hat" thread on the Park Slope Parents listserv, and she's complained about kids' bedrooms being stupid pastel colors.
