Why Is He Not At The Barbershop With His Pops… Oh… Cause He’s A Gazoooo
Alicia Keys Said She Feels Frustrated By Labels After Her Son Told Her He Didn’t Want To Wear His Rainbow Manicure
On Saturday, the singer and philanthropist opened up about her frustrations with labels after taking her 4-year-old son, Genesis, to a nail salon recently.
He’s in the chair and he’s like, ‘I want [a] rainbow.’ So he tells the lady that he wants rainbow colors on his nails. And she brings all of these colors and she paints each nail a different color. And after she painted his nails, he looked at me and he said, ‘Mommy, I don’t want this on my nails,'” Alicia recalled.
And I was like, ‘Why? You were so sure. You were good.’ And he was like, ‘People are not gonna like it.’ Can you believe this? 4 years old. He’s 4!” she continued.
And he already understands the concept that someone is gonna judge him because he chose rainbow colors on his nails.”
After telling Genesis that people would love his nails because it shows “how creative” he is, Alicia empowered him by saying: “Stick with it. You chose it. You liked it. You do it.”
Who cares what anybody else says!” she added.
The Grammy-award winner also told Genesis that “a lot of guys paint their nails” and said, “that made him feel better.”
However, the mom of two did admit the whole experience got her to think about “how completely judged we are, all the time.”
The way I see it, there is masculine and there are feminine energies inside of us all, period,” she stated.
It gets concerning to me that we can’t just explore these different sides of ourselves. These different energies that are within us.”
Even for me, myself, I oftentimes express the masculine energy that’s inside of me,” Alicia shared. “And, all the time, if that happens, there are the judgments, and there’s the stereotypes, and there are all the energies that come towards that.”
And for my boys, [it’s] similar, if they want to express the feminine energy that’s inside of them. There’s all of these judgments, and all these rules, and stereotypes, and vibes.”
It’s really frustrating to me. I’m actually really, really frustrated about it. I ask myself, ‘Why is that? Why can’t we just express the different energies that are inside us?'”
We should be able to explore and express [our masculine and feminine energies] however we want to.”
Preach, Alicia ??! It didn’t take long for others to praise her Instagram rant, including celebs like Tracee Ellis Ross and fellow R&B singer Melanie Fiona, who wrote: “This parenting. This thinking. THIS is the stuff that will change the world.”
Alicia’s husband, music producer Swizz Beatz, also weighed in on the topic, showing support for his son’s rainbow manicure:
