Halle Berry has a rule about not showing her children on social media.
She almost never posts about them and when she does she makes it a point not to include their faces.
People just proved why. But Berry wasn't about to let it go unanswered and gave them the most wonderful mama bear response.
Like most of us, Halle and her family are in an isolated, at-home situation. Children stuck at home—even when home is a million-dollar pad—are going to get bored and start getting creative about the things they play with.
That's a good thing. Boredom breeds creativity which leads to innovation.
In other words bored kids get creative. Creative kids find new ways to entertain themselves, and that is where the mental magic happens.
So Halle's son, being a kid, got bored, got creative and decided to entertain himself by popping on a pair of Halle's boots and happily bouncing around. It's something most kids do and it's great exercise for their little bodies.
Halle caught a video of her son playing on the stairs and posted it on her Instagram.
And pretty much immediately regretted it.
The homophobic comments poured in. People questioned Halle's ability to parent.
People accused her of making her son gay. People lashed out calling it abnormal, damaging, disgusting.
There wasn't a lot of holding back in the comments.
"Stop pretending it's normal."
"My son never played in my heels."
"That's a damn shame. This is where it starts, in the home. Not society. These parents make me shake my head."
"They LIB-EM-UP quick these days! Can't hunt, fish, or build a decent shelter for the Tribe...... but sure can rock some stilletto heels! #FAILINGinNATURE"
"This is destroying the black community. Emasculating our black boys is terrible. I wouldn't expect you to understand. Nothing fun about this... this is why it's important for parents to be parents and have control."
"Stop letting boy men do this and think it's cute. Where are the fathers when ya need em?"
"This isn't even funny... I thought she was protective of her kids."
It's pretty rare that a celeb will directly respond to social media comments, but Halle did.
She hopped on to defend him with a few comments.
"We are trying to cope the best we can."
"Well, it's a he and he is having a ball."
"It's harmless fun. It's tight on these kids right now. Let's have a laugh and some compassion yawl."
While not everyone was ignorant or negative, it seems strange to us that people would so harshly criticize anyone for letting their kid play in a pair of their parent's shoes—particularly a young child stuck at home for the foreseeable future.
But what strikes us as even more odd is the restraint Halle showed with her responses.
We're not sure we could have been that graceful.
You can see Halle Berry alongside Keanu Reeves in John Wick: Chapter 3—Parabellum, available here.
