Dad's fury after son bullied for wearing nail polish
A dad has raged against ‘toxic masculinity’ after his five-year-old son was bullied for wearing nail polish.
Aaron Gouveia, a father-of-three from Massachusetts in the US, launched the tirade after his son Sam was called names after wearing red nail polish to kindergarten.
“My rage meter is spiking right now so excuse me if this is a little raw but there are some things I want to say,” Mr Gouveia said on his ‘Daddy Files’ Twitter account on October 22.
“Sam is my middle child and he’s a terror.
“He’s rough and tumble, he’s loud, he’s always dirty, loves trucks, plays sports and knee drops me from the couch.
“But he also loves a lot of “girl” things.”
Mr Gouveia is a popular parenting blogger, who has more than 15,000 Twitter followers. He wrote that Sam was bullied by his classmates at kindergarten.
“He proudly wore his red nail polish to kindergarten this morning because Sam has absolutely no concept of nail polish only being for girls or reason to think anyone would possibly have a problem with beautiful nails,” Mr Gouveia tweeted.
“Sam was ridiculed for being a boy with nail polish.
“They called him names and told him to take it off. This lasted the entire day.
“When my wife picked him up from school he collapsed into her arms and cried uncontrollably.
“He was devastated at how other kids turned on him, even his friends.”
Mr Gouveia encouraged his son to continue expressing himself and told him that male celebrities including Chris Hemsworth wore nail polish.
“My wife and I spent five years successfully preaching tolerance, acceptance, and the importance of expression and your kids unravelled that in one school day,” he tweeted.
“After careful consideration, he’s leaving it on. Because he likes it and it makes him feel good.”
Sam’s father and 10-year-old brother painted their nails in solidarity.
