Lewis Hamilton’s Apology Makes No Difference To The Invisible Harm He Might Have Caused

Big surprise, Lewis Hamilton has apologised for posting a video where he told his nephew that ‘boys don’t wear dresses’.

On Christmas day, the Formula One world champion posted a video to his 5.7m Instagram followers of his nephew in a dress-up princess dress. He mocks the little boy, asking ‘why are you wearing a princess dress? Is this what you got for Christmas? Why did you ask for a princess dress for Christmas? Boys don’t wear princess dresses!’

Some of the good people on Twitter have criticised the video, because, you know, enforcing limiting gender roles on little kids trying to just have a good time is a really shitty thing to do.

Lewis Hamilton has since apologised for the video, calling it a ‘lapse in judgement’.

The apology is all well and good, but the real problem with comments like these is that we have no real idea of the damage they’ve caused. We don’t know whether Lewis Hamilton’s nephew will want to wear a dress again, and we don’t know how many more boys around the world have heard the message that boys shouldn’t do ‘girly’ things loud and clear. We don’t know how many boys will feel even more deeply that they need to ‘be a man’, be interested in cars, being strong, pursuing girls, and all of those other ‘man things’ they’ve been told to do. We don’t know how many boys and girls worry about being the victims of the ‘jokey banter’ doled out by Lewis Hamilton, and how they might change their behaviours to avoid it.

Having these archaic and restrictive gender roles enforced by your uncle nob-head at the Christmas dinner table is one thing, but hearing it from a mega cool and famous millionaire celebrity is another. There are boys and men who look up to Lewis Hamilton as a role model, and who might now have the message that ‘boys don’t wear princess dresses’ even more firmly pressed into their minds.

Lewis Hamilton’s apology is ultimately meaningless; it came in the form of an emotionless and formal string of tweets. It’s easy to believe it was a PR panic apology, with the words emailed over from his press person and a quick phone call to decide on the excuse of a ‘lapse in judgement’ (rather than an admission that he holds damaging opinions on how men and women should look, behave, and the places they’re allowed to occupy in society).

I can’t help feeling sad. Sad that this will be dismissed as an embarrassing public faux pas which angered the lefty liberals for Lewis Hamilton and those in his camp. But even more sad that we have no idea how many of his millions of his fans will repeat the message that men can’t be ‘girly’ to their nephews, sons, brothers, or to themselves. Because if ‘girly’ just means emotional, caring and vulnerable then that’s exactly what we should be allowing little boys to be.

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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.