The rigid walls of toxic masculinity are crumbling before our eyes -- because a major league baseball player for the Boston Red Sox plans to paint his fingernails and toenails before every game this season. First baseman Tristan Casas is helping to change the “stereotypically macho image of MLB players for the better,” according to sensationalist Outsports writer Ken Schultz.
During spring training in Florida, Casas displayed red fingernail polish and white painted toenails. This girly look is “great” for baseball, Schultz declared.:
“For one thing, they look excellent. Casas’ red nails are really going to pop when set off against the classic bright white of the Red Sox home uniforms. Adding glitter to one finger on each hand is a delightful extra bit of zazz.
“Casas choosing to zhuzh his middle fingers is also a nice tribute to the favorite digit of Boston sports fans, especially when the New York Yankees are in town.”
This fitting development from the Grapefruit League is an important step in encouraging once-macho big leaguers to freely express their personalities (inner femininity?), making baseball a more compelling and welcoming game, Schultz raved.
It’s supposedly a welcome departure from yesteryear when baseball players were tough as, well, nails. Or so we’re told by the alphabet propagandist. Schultz gushes over players finding the freedom to “step outside the stereotypical ‘testosterone-fueled jock’ image of masculinity that the game has embraced in the past.”
By painting his nails, Casas is adding to the legend of softer baseball players like Joc Pederson, who wore a pearl necklace during the Atlanta Braves’ World Series run in 2021. Along with St. Louis hitting coach Turner Ward kissing Lars Nootbar’s cheek last year to celebrate his birthday. These are men who add color to a sport that’s been suffocated by tradition. With the implication it’s been damaged by men acting like men.
These outliers in the manly sport of baseball are helping to generate more inclusion in baseball culture. In fact, Schultz argues that the men cited above made it possible for White Sox minor leaguer Anderson Comas to simultaneously come out of the bullpen and the closet. They’re just being who they really are … and all that jazz, the LGBTABCD narrative goes.
A little thing like red nails makes a bigger statement than one would think, Schultz goes on. Stepping outside “the rigid definition of masculinity” opens a window for inclusion allowing Comas to live out his truths and emboldens allies to affirm him.
Even though no major leaguer has ever come out as an active player, a guy painting his nails is no small feat. It’s another step in the feminization of men. Somehow, this is supposed to make us a better nation.
