Missouri Dad's Recent TikTok Post Went Viral After Son is Criticized for Wearing Nail Polish

Doug Weaver nail polish Paint on Fingernails

By Camille Hutchison , Parent Herald Nov 06, 10:42 am

Doug Weaver stated in an October 26 video post that has since been viewed more than 978,000 times, that his son had painted his fingernails and had been criticized about it. He opened up in his TikTok post that has gone viral about what his 6-year-old son told his classmates after they noticed the boy's nail polish, per Good Morning America (GMA).

Continued that over the weekend, his son wanted his nails painted so Doug decided to paint it but on Monday when his son came from school, he told them that three of the kids in his class told him that painting the nails is for girls only. And in response, he told those kids that there's nothing limited to boys or just girls. The father then asked his son what did the other kids think of his answer and said, the two didn't believe him but one of them did and started telling one of the other ones that he also believe that it was okay for boys to paint their nails.

The Missouri dad went on to share how he told his son that "sometimes the people that are the meanest talk the most and talk the loudest." Adding that he felt strongly about speaking out about his son's experience on social media.

The 6-year-old son is "super creative," says his dad

The 34-year-old father says he sees a lot of individuals on TikTok discussing similar topics and talking about the same ideas. Adding that one of the reasons he wants to post such content is because he is a cisgender, heterosexual man, and stuffs like these can not be usually heard from cis het men that much as it's a lot harder to find but thinks that it's easy not to discuss it.

Moreover, the art teacher noticed that there are people who have never heard anyone say that it's fine and have never anyone say that "No, this isn't harmful. It's just paint." The art teacher describes his first-grader son as "super creative" and noted that this wasn't the first time his son wanted to paint his fingernails; He first painted his nails when he was a kindergartner and no one cared as everyone seemed to like it. Hence, this year, in first grade, it appears that more and more kids are aware of certain social norms and trying to enforce them, thus, it's abruptly becoming more apparent to him.

The proud daddy said that after he posted the video on social media, he received massive and various reactions with many of them supportive. Hence, others sent him furious messages, accusing the father of confusing the child and setting him up to be in therapy in the future when he's old enough. Adding that his child could be gay, implies it is a negative character attribute.

"No, it's fine. If you like colors, it's fine..."

The Missouri dad went on to question how others do not see how silly it is to make such grand assumptions and get mad over a 6-year-old only having color on his fingers. Weaver stated that he finds such comments and assumptions ridiculous.

Doug, who has more than 247,000 followers on TikTok, hopes that his TikTok videos would gradually dismantle gender norms and societal ideas of what things are considered masculine by many people. Emphasizing that he wanted to tell those people that "No, it's fine. If you like colors, it's fine" as it was only colored on nails and it doesn't have that meaning much.

Furthermore, according to Vice, many men nowadays wear nail polish as a way to express themselves beyond stereotypes of masculinity.