Gabrielle Union shared new family photos on the 4th of July, and the only takeaway should have been that the Union-Wade family is so freakin’ cute. Because Union, her husband Dwyane Wade, their daughter Kaavia James, and Union’s stepdaughter Zaya Wade were having the best time goofing around outside and riding horses. But, unfortunately, instead of just smiling about how adorable they are, we’re also over here fuming over the bigots in Union’s comments.
Followers have such a problem with the fact that Wade has some of his nails painted. If you zoom in, you can see that Wade has a pinky finger painted light blue and it looks like some other fingers have chipped black nail polish. And those little details are making anonymous trolls “curious.” (Read: Mad but trying to not get hate.)
“I wonder what made D Wade start wanting to paint his fingernails,” one follower said. “Don’t come for me I’m just wondering.”
And our eyes are rolling so hard. Because really? Are you really just wondering? Commenters always have a motive and we find it really hard to believe this commenter wasn’t trying to open the door for other bigots to respond and say things like “a closet gay” and “guys that wanna attract guys.”
As other followers pointed out, people need to educate themselves and realize that painting (or not painting) nails has nothing to do with sexuality. “You sound like a 12 year old…,” one follower said of the people who can’t fathom a world where heterosexual men can paint their nails and it be, as one follower said, “not that serious.”
The retired NBA player might be breaking gender norms as a form of solidarity with his daughter Zaya. Or he might just like the way it looks. Case closed. No bigger message. “Why are people so concerned with someone else’s gender expression?” another added. “Get a life.”
And then there was the follower who had the audacity to say, “While he playing dress up bronny in the NBA making 7 mil.” It’s unclear if by “he,” this follower is talking about Wade painting his nails or if this jerk is joining the loads of other a—holes in the comments who insist on misgendering Zaya. Either way, it’s f*cked up and bigoted.
If we were to give that follower who was wondering what made Wade start painting his nails the benefit of the doubt and assume that he was trying to be harmless, we could say that a third reason Wade might have his nails painted is that he’s a girl dad. Other girl dads like Derek Jeter and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson can attest to the fact that daughters are always trying to give their dads makeovers or spa days. So perhaps this was 5-year-old Kaavia’s doing. Whatever the reason, you keep doing you, Wade. Don’t let the trolls keep you from dressing and styling yourself the way you like.
These celebrity fathers are all proud to be “girl dads.”
