APPAREL MERCHANT J. CREW GOT SOME CONSERVATIVES IN A TIZZY this spring. In an April email to customers, J. Crew president/creative director Jenna Lyons shared some of her favorite products — including a hot-pink nail polish, which her young son is sporting in the photo. Horrors! People seemed particularly upset by the photo’s caption: “Lucky for me I ended up with a boy whose favorite color is pink. Toenail painting is way more fun in neon.”
The social conservative outcry was loud — and ridiculous. Psychiatrist and Fox News contributor Keith Ablow called it “a dramatic example of the way that our culture is being encouraged to abandon all trappings of gender identity.” (Really? We have nothing else to worry about in the world today?)
Then, J. Crew’s May catalog featured its employees as models, including a gay designer with his boyfriend, who are described as “Happy Together.” Again, the story was widely picked up by the media, and J. Crew was accused of “pushing a gay agenda.” J. Crew, as of press time, has not said a word about any of this. And that’s probably the right call — why dignify it with a response?