BABY BLING + THE CULTURAL FIRESTORM
The firestorm that Brazilian
supermodel Gisele Bündchen recently set off, following this innocent
Instagram share of her with her seven-month-old daughter, Vivian Lake,
wearing itsy-bitsy earrings and a matching necklace, hit home.
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| Photo credit: Gisele Bündchen's Instagram |
I'm married to a Cuban and this has been a touch-and-go topic in my house for almost two years, though in
a far milder manner. But this is sensitive stuff, baby girls and the passing of
cultural heritage.
Anyone who doesn't
know, the attack on Gisele wasn't pretty. Anglo mommy bloggers around the world
erupted at the sight of her baby's earring bling - a few of them even boldly
inched toward the word abuse.
Latina mothers shot to
Gisele's defense, popping up on GMA twitter feeds, "The Today
Show" and The Huffington
Post, among many others. Piercing a baby girl's ears isn't cruel or vain,
they said, it's a cultural norm in Latin America, much like circumcising boys
in the U.S.
Gisele was sideswiped,
but this whole thing isn't really about her at all. She's simply the pretty
poster model for a cultural debate that has been raging for ages.
For mothers and
fathers with ties to Latin America, piercing a baby girl's ears is a rite of
passage and newborns often leave the hospital with 14-karat studs in place.
It's a celebratory
kind of thing. A Panamanian friend of mine, Karina, was so excited about
piercing her daughter's ears at two months old, the legal age in the U.S. a
child is allowed to do so, she posted pics on Facebook, surrounded in
exclamation points. “Finally! Got Angelique's ears pierced!”
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| Luis with our sweet friend, Angelique |
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| Ana and Angelique |
My husband, Luis,
started talking about buying earrings for his niña linda before
she was even born.
Oh, boy. How was I going to get in the way of a father and his little girl? I stayed quiet, not able to tell him that I probably wasn't going to be able to go there until preteen years. I was 12 or 13 when I got my ears pierced, as were most of my friends. It's my comfort zone.
Oh, boy. How was I going to get in the way of a father and his little girl? I stayed quiet, not able to tell him that I probably wasn't going to be able to go there until preteen years. I was 12 or 13 when I got my ears pierced, as were most of my friends. It's my comfort zone.
Logically, I know it's
safe, the American Association of Pediatrics will tell you so, though the
collective choice is that mothers wait until a baby is at least four months old
and semi-vaccinated. As well, I spoke to a local nurse who has assisted with a
number of piercings and following earlobe numbing, the greatest offense to the
babies, she said, is getting them to hold their heads still. They cry far more
with shots.
So what is my issue?
We have a number of little friends sporting jewelry who wear it beautifully,
but I can't seem to sway with my own baby girl.
It turns out my own
cultural pull is herculean.
So, where does this
leave Ana, our miniature half-Americana?
Well, without earrings
for now.
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2 comments
Yo... Same deal with us! Except in our case it's the papa (me) against, and the mama (Camila) for. When we went down to Brazil for the baby's baptism, guess what we got for gifts!? You got it... earrings! The baby's ears were pierced at 8 months, but we pulled them when she started getting a little redness on the lobes. So she's back to au naturale. I think if we were in Brazil I would have lost this battle ;-)
ReplyDeleteMy opinion: weigh the pros and cons, take some time to ponder them, and then make your decision. (I know, a lot easier said than done). We both know she's a tough little la Americana/Cuban girl who can hold her own, and who loves bling! ;) ¡buena suerte amiga!
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