Hilary Duff kissed her son on the lips and some sad people got angry
It’s probable that the world has indeed gone mad as various Outrage McOutragefaces took Hilary Duff to task for… kissing her 4-year-old son on the lips. Sigh.
Here come the judgements
In a fairly chronic case of people not minding their own business, commenters on social media were quick to critique the Younger star and mum-of-one for planting a cute smooch on her 4-year-old son Luca’s lips. The pair were super-excited to be having a really fun day together at Disneyland and keen to capture the moment.
Hilary shared a snap of her and Luca to that effect on Instagram and Twitter and then Kissgate began to unfold.
Apparently, in some peoples’ eyes, lip-kissing your children is unacceptable and, more worryingly, “sick” or sexual.
Kissgate
We are thinking these are the type of people who prefer to greet others with a punch on the arm or express their deep affection with a fist bump.
Or possibly the type of people who sadly have deeper reasons for feeling uncomfortable about a mum-kid kiss.
Smooch-averse pearl-clutchers hit the comments section of Duff’s post with the kind of messed up venom you’d usually see directed at criminals or monsters.
It became clear that normal displays of affection between a parent and their child are triggering for some people, who misinterpret a celebratory peck as something sexual or sinister.
“Warped minds”
Duff fired back, herself outraged that people would taint something perfectly innocent so nastily.
“For anyone commenting that a kiss on the lips with my four year old is ‘inappropriate’ go ahead and click a quick unfollow with your warped minds and judgment,” the star posted.
Fortunately, Duff has a gun social media team monitoring her Instagram. They seem to be deleting the nasty comments as quickly as they pop up. Unfortunately it’s not possible to moderate trolling as easily on Twitter.
Deeper issue
If a mum’s cute kiss-on-the-lips sparks such wild judgement, surely there’s a much deeper societal issue her?
Lots of people are obviously extremely confused about normal shows of affection and love (and very keen to police the behaviour of others.)
You have to wonder what the smooch-critics have experienced in their life that has made them so affection-averse and how we can help people who find innocent intimacy confronting.
We’re thankful that Hilary’s excellent parenting has sparked broader conversations about these complex issues, because maybe we can turn the tide on this sort of judgement, once and for all.
As you ponder this worrying problem, take another look at the cute Duff clan’s Disneyland day out.
Stormed the place today #disneyland ✌?️crazy nutterbutters. ❤️shane❤️Luca❤️pearl @sharm1222 @mrslisao pic.twitter.com/AHh6i2Htyf
— Hilary Duff (@HilaryDuff) December 13, 2016