Strollerderby

Babble Talk: Is Liz Hurley's Girly Boy Such a Big Deal?

Posted by Alisyn

Between their new Prime Minister taking office and the Concert for Diana, how Brits have the energy to kick up a big ruckus over Liz Hurley’s cross-dressing 4-year-old son Damian is beyond me.   But apparently, allowing a man-child to be photographed in a pink bikini and pin-up girl shades is just the pinnacle of outrageous in the U.K. - even American parents are up in arms (those who remember who Liz Hurley is, anyway).  You'd think she'd had him castrated with the way people are carrying on.

Personally, I think this "controversy" is ridiculous.  The kid is five – way too young to care about gender stereotypes, and probably likened the experience to playing dress-up, the way all kids do.    So what if it was a cheap marketing ploy by his mum - would people be so outraged if this was a little girl advertising Mum's line of swim trunks?  No way.  So why make this a bigger deal than it needs to be?  What is it about a little boy in girl's clothing that drives people so nuts?   I just don't get it.

[Photo via News of the World
+ DIGG + STUMBLE
Posted Jul 03 2007, 05:31 PM

Comments

 

RachelZ said:

Wait - the Brits put TOPLESS CHICKS in their newspapers and now they're getting all aghast and pearl-clutching over a cross-dressing 5-year-old?

Boy George is probably somewhere going "pshaw, I did that YEARS ago."

July 3, 2007 10:40 PM
 

deia said:

I don't think it's a gender issue - if the kid wanted to wear it, then fine. It's that she's shooting photos for her own line of swimwear and she dresses her son in one to promote it. Sure, he won't notice or maybe even really care, but why would she do that? To create publicity? To have an unusual photo in the catalogue? Her line has already been slammed by people who think leopard-print string bikinis aren't suitable for tiny girls - how is THIS going to generate her any positive commentary? It's, as the article said, a cheap way of gaining publicity by exploiting her son. If she'd stuck her own daughter in a tiny leopard bikini to be plastered on the sides of buses and bus shelters, we'd probably be saying the same thing.

July 4, 2007 5:22 AM
 

mcglory13 said:

Whatever. Gwen Stefani dresses her kid exclusively in her horrible line of clothes- and I've never seen anybody complain about that as exploitation.

July 4, 2007 9:28 PM
 

Strollerderby said:

The odd holiday week has finally come to an end. Odd, I say, because who takes only Wednesday off? It's like a cruel trick played on parents -- yeah, it's the weekend! Wait a minute, no it's not. Get back to work! It hurts my brain to think

August 13, 2007 11:42 PM

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