Alicia Keys Encourages Son Ashamed of His Rainbow Manicure

"Let boys be feminine," is the mantra Alicia Keys seems to be following in a recent video shared on the singer's Instagram.

On Saturday the Empire State of Mind vocalist shared a story in which her 4-year-old son Genesis asked for a rainbow manicure at a nail salon. After the glam session, Genesis told Keys he no longer wanted them because "people are not gonna like it."

"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," she explained. "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.'"

"And I said, 'Why? You were so sure. You were good.'" Keys continued. "And he was like, 'People are not gonna like it.' Can you believe this? 4 years old. He's 4! And he already understands the concept that someone is gonna judge him because he chose rainbow colors on his nails."

Keys reassured her son that no one is going to judge him for the choice and that people would love his nails because it shows "how creative and amazing" he is. "Stick with it," she said. "You chose it. You liked it. You do it."

After telling Genesis that "a lot of guys paint their nails" the singer said that it "made him feel better."

"It just got me to thinking how completely judged we are all the time," she said. "The way I see it is that there's masculine and there's feminine energies inside of us all. And it gets concerning to me that we can't just explore these different sides of ourselves, these different energies within us."

Keys continued by saying she "oftentimes [expresses] the masculine energy" inside of herself.

"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."

The singer said that she gets "really, really frustrated about it."

"I ask myself, 'Why is that? Why can't we just express the different energies that are inside us?'"

She continued: "We should be able to explore and express [our masculine and feminine energies] however we want to."

We agree Alicia. Can you adopt us?

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