Alicia Keys’ 4-year-old son Genesis recently accompanied his mother to a nail salon, sparking discussions about labels, masculinity and identity, USA Today reports.
The "Girl On Fire" singer told her followers that Genesis joined her at the nail salon and while there, he decided he wanted each of his fingers to be painted a different color. However, following the manicure, Genesis looked to his mom and said he didn’t want them anymore because “people are not going to like it,” USA Today reports.
“Can you believe this?” the 15-time Grammy winner said in an Instagram video where she recounted the moment. “He's four years old. Four. And he already understands the concept that someone's going to judge him because he chose a rainbow color on his nails.”
The singer said that the experience got her thinking about “how completely judged we are.” She expressed frustration about what society defines as “masculine and feminine energies."
“It gets concerning to me that we can't just explore these different sides of ourselves,” she added in her post. “Even for me, myself, I often explore the masculine energy that's inside of me. It's very natural to me. That's how I feel… For my boys, (it's) similar: if they want to express the feminine energy that's inside of them, there's all these judgments and all these rules and stereotypes and vibes, and it's really frustrating to me.”
Billboard reports the New York City native opened up a larger discussion about how people look about one another, citing the video and reactions on social media.
BuzzFeed also reports that Keys’ husband Swizz Beatz also weighed in and showed support for his son.
“He’s a young King and he can explore his creativity at any time! We support it as his parents,” the music producer said.
