Why Are People So Weirded Out by Paul and Stella McCartney Embracing?

When it comes to parents showing their children affection, some apparently feel there should be an age limit for the PDA. Most recently, some people had a problem with 74-year-old singer Paul McCartney embracing his 45-year-old designer daughter, Stella McCartney.

The father and daughter, along with Paul’s wife, Nancy Shevel, and Stella’s husband and four children, were on a family beach vacation in the French Caribbean on Jan. 3. After swimming in the ocean, Stella was greeted onshore by her father, who wrapped a towel around her and then gave her a hug and a kiss.

You can see some of the photos here:

Sweet, right? Not so, according to some Facebook users who sounded off on the Daily Mail article about the McCartney family vacation. “I’m sorry but that’s just icky,” Facebook user Michelle Walker wrote. “I don’t care if it is his daughter, he doesn’t need to be putting his hands all over her….I’m pretty sure she’s capable of drying herself off.”

Haroonio Sarwar felt the need to add: “It’s wrong to be hugging and kissing your half naked daughter on the beach at the age of 45. She’s not a kid anymore. He can hug her when she is fully dressed.”

Thankfully, the vast majority defended the parental PDA. “OMG can a father not show his daughter affection without it being creepy and wrong,” wrote Gillian Nash. “The only thing that’s creepy and wrong is the people who see it this way. A bond between a father and his daughter is unbreakable. Get a life all who see it any other way. Ur the sick ones.”

Wejdene Makni agreed: “To anyone who find this sexual in any way, you’re sick and you really need help.”

Many shared how touching it was that Paul and Stella have such a close, loving relationship, including Facebook user Heather Barton. “Pretty sure he’s just giving her a towel, a hug and a kiss,” she wrote. “Let’s all just settle down a bit. There is nothing creepy about a father being a dad….it’s called being a loving human being.”

Added Clare Dutt: “This is lovely, seeing the bond between father and daughter is something that can never be taken away. There is nothing weird by this at all, after all his daughter will always be his little girl no matter how old she is xx.”

The McCartneys aren’t the first family to come under fire for showing affection. Hilary Duff and Victoria Beckham both caught flak for kissing their own children on the lips. Five months ago, Beckham shared a snap on Instagram kissing her daughter Harper on her 5th birthday. While some freaked out over the innocent photo, many came to Beckham’s defense.

“It’s a sad place in the world when a mom can’t kiss their child on the lips,” wrote Instagram user jones_kate25. “I love this photo and think there’s absolutely nothing wrong with this. People who do definitely have the wrong view. Go and watch the news and see the real things you should be disgusted in, which is nowhere near this.”

More recently, Duff posted a picture smooching her 4-year-old son on the lips while they were at Disneyland in December. Many people were supportive of the photo, saying it was “adorable” and “beautiful,” but some criticized the actress, calling the kiss “inappropriate.”

Duff responded loud and clear to the mother-child PDA haters on Instagram, pointing out that the problem is with their “warped minds” and not with showing your own child affection:

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