J. Crew Ad: Boy With Pink Toenails

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Apparently they are coming to the UK later this year.

http://fashion.telegraph.co.uk/news-fea ... he-UK.html

Human bullshittery. We've been over that a dozen times, and you couldn't name a single eternal and universal gender role,
or support the assertion that everything humans do "has to" have a basis in nature.

Anyway. How horrible to "celebrate" being transgendered?
I doubt that boy was, but it's a tell-tale sign of a deep cultural divide when things I and others consider basic moral values illicit outrage from conservatives.

Neocon smear campaign, in dramatic black and white: "Barack Obama voted for federal funds to be used to subsidize abortion....NINE TIMES."
Me: HELL yeah!

its PR BS just to make a quick buck. Now would J. Crew put a stunt off like that if there turnover was good?

I saw this on the Daily Show the other day, I have to agree that the "outrage" is pretty ridiculous. I don't think on it's own it will effect the future sexuality of the child. Personally however, I don't think it's appropriate for a parent to encourage or to even allow young children(particularly boys) to go against traditional gender roles. There are societal norms, like 'em or not, and kids can be really cruel. I had enough trouble as a kid without my mom dressing me up in pink and painting my toenails. I think the trauma resulting from that sort of thing could effect a child in adulthood quite seriously.

In the UK back in the 90s a few Benetton billboard ads sparked off debate, in the end the British Advertising Standards Authority has to step in by banning some of them.

I suspect it's the type of publicity they do want precisely because it pisses off a segment of the population. The segment of the population that it pisses off is stodgy conservative adults. That is exactly who you want to piss off if you want young fashionable hipsters to buy your clothes.

I'm wearing J.Crew clothes right now. My closet is full of them. Many of them I bought 10 years ago. Some I even bought 15 years ago. Their clothes are timeless and well made and so the pants I bought 15 years ago are just as suitable now. I am middle aged. You pretty much have to be either middle aged or elderly to keep literally wearing the same clothes for >10 years. And that's a problem for J.Crew. Their very timelessness and well-builtness has induced a lot of people in their 40's to keep wearing the J.Crew clothes they bought in their 30's. I have bought some new pieces. With any luck I'll still be wearing them in my 50's.

I am a devoted J.Crew customer and so are many others my age and J.Crew hates this. They've got to expand beyond people like me because having a middle aged customer base that only buys 2 new things a year is hurting their bottom line. J.Crew was extremely popular with young people in the 80's. That's when I and many others started wearing their clothes. All of us who started wearing J.Crew in the 80's are still wearing their clothes but now we are middle aged and don't bother keeping up with fashion. Also, the very fact that we are visible customers, walking around town in our 10 year old J. Crew shirts, gives the entire clothing line a taint of middle-aged-ness.

J. Crew desperately needs to recapture the young, fashionable, spendthrift customer base that it had back in the 80's. Young people buy, buy, buy and wouldn't be caught dead in a sweater they were wearing 3 years ago (never mind 10 years ago, when they were still in children's sizes). Enter the boy with the pink toenails. He's "edgy". He irritates middle aged people. In some quarters he may even actively piss them off. Hurrah! J.Crew is young again! Maybe somebody who wasn't even born in the 80's will buy their clothes. And buy new ones next year. And buy new ones the year after that. That's the hope, anyway.

I swear, if I was a man I'd wear a dress and makeup just to shock the easily-shocked.
Alas. I'm a woman and am pretty much free to wear whatever.

You could dress really 80s!



Oops, that's not a girl, that's Vince Neil, lead singer of Mötley Crüe. How silly of me!
Let me try this again...



That's more like it! People would definitely be shocked!

...the second one's not a whole lot better, D.

Aw come on, you'll be my hero (not to suggest you aren't already, or anything.. )