Comedy Central's The Daily Show
starring Jon Stewart has waded into the controversy over J. Crew's
pink toenail layout, which they named Toemageddon 2011: This
Little Piggy Went To Hell.
The layout Saturday with Jenna,
which is featured
on the clothing giant's website, includes photos of Jenna Lyons,
creative director for J. Crew, hanging out with her son Beckett. In
one photo, Beckett is seen with his feet in his mother's lap, his
toenails painted hot pink. Under the headline “Quality Time,”
Lyons is quoted: “Lucky for me, I ended up with a boy whose
favorite color is pink. Toenail painting is way more fun in neon.”
Social conservatives blasted the ad,
calling it “blatant propaganda celebrating transgender children.”
“Really, what I thought was just a
pleasant, sweet little mother-son bondvertising, NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN
and Fox recognized as,” Stewart
says before flashing the Toemageddon
2011: This Little Piggy Went To Hell graphic.
After showing a
clip of Dan Gainor, vice president of Media Research Center saying,
“It's not about painting somebody's toenails, it's about painting a
five-year-old boy's toenails hot pink, or what's the word they
use? Neon,” a dazed Stewart says, “Well, thanks for saying the
word neon the way you would say the word dildo.”
“If you take them
[children] to a face painting booth, it doesn't make them cats, or
cat lovers, or Rum Tum Tugger – not that there's anything wrong
with that,” Steward comments after showing several clips of riled
up social conservatives likening nail polish to “gender bending.”
And when in a Fox
News clip Keith Ablow is seen saying the ad is “an attack on
masculinity,” Stewart counters with, “If only masculinity had a
defender. Someone like four time Ultimate Fighting Champion Chuck
Liddell,” who paints his toenails black.
Earlier in the
week, rocker
Adam Lambert spoke out on the controversy.