This dad has a brilliant reason for letting his genderqueer son do his makeup
A father and son have caused a stir on Twitter, by posing in matching, and perfectly executed, makeup.
Spencer Claus, 16, hopes to be a makeup artist and gifted his mum a makeover for Mother’s Day.
Tweeting a photograph of himself and his mum with the brilliant makeup looks, matching of course, he wrote: “Like mother like son”.
Then a month later, still a bit low on cash, and looking for what to get his dad for Father’s Day, Claus did the same thing.
He tweeted the picture of their matching looks, writing: “Like father like son, right?”
Speaking about the project, Claus said: “The one with my dad was more of an inside joke just because my dad is so un-glamorous… It started out just being funny for us but turned out to be an example of parenting done right.”
Claus, who identifies as genderqueer, said in the interview that he had experienced hatred since he started wearing makeup.
“I get a lot of people saying that makeup isn’t natural on men and my response to that is that makeup isn’t natural on anyone,” he said.
“It’s none of your damn business who wears makeup and who doesn’t. I think a lot of boys use it as a means to express femininity, which I definitely do.”
Of his parents’ gentle conversations when he was growing up that he might be attracted to boys, Claus said: “I came out of the womb with jazz hands and until I was 13 my mom would gently ask me once every couple months, ‘Do you think maybe you like boys?’ he said. “They were trying to pry open the closet long before I even knew there was a closet. Everything else — theatre, school, work — they’ve been fantastically supportive of too.”
Concluding, the 16-year-old gave some brilliant advice about how parenting can be done right.
“If I could teach people one thing from these images or from my work it would be this: Parents, embracing your kid is so much easier than trying to change them.”
“Whatever endeavours I choose, [my parents] support me whole-heartedly. Makeup was just another one of those things! So, teens, live your life; parents, help them do it. It could end up being really fun.”
Earlier this year, when this other guy’s son asked him if he could put makeup on him, he knew exactly what to say.
Olivia Wilde, on making a brilliant prediction about her son’s sexuality, joined celebrity parenting winners such as Brad and Angelina, who last year allowed their child John to self-identify, and Kate Winslet who gave this incredible advice to her son, should he turn out to be gay.
