Posted 12 months ago
via toldorknown
pink is (not really that) fantastic
…snip…don’t deny your daughter the awesome that is pink just because men are too macho-whatever to rock it! (pink COULD be a gender neutral color, if it wasn’t for guys and their hissyfits. girls seem to have no problem enjoying blue.)
boycotting pink things isn’t going to do her any good. read her more books instead.
We just avoid making it the defining color of her gender.
The thing we take issue with isn’t the color, it’s the pervasive bifurcation of all things childhood into “these are for boys” and “these are for girls”.
And don’t worry about books. She’s got quite a collection already, and there are hundreds more available right here in the house when she’s ready for them. Fiction, philosophy, how-to, art, cartoons (both the art and the how-to), politics, biography, science, religion, psychology—we got her covered.
Good for you guys. I know toys have always been segregated, at least since the beginning of the twentieth century. Girls are “supposed” to play with dolls and boys are “supposed” to play with trucks, trains, horses, etc. But it seems, to me at least, that there used to be a wider range of gender neutral toys as well as a wider range of colors for girls toys. Boys still have blue, green, brown, red. Now all little girls have is PINK PINK PINK OH GOD IT’S BURNING MY EYES PINK.
I played with lots of baby dolls (and trucks and trains and dollhouses and an Apple II GS) as a little kid, but I remember my dolls had all kinds of clothes — including a a little brown safari outfit, because clearly that is where one would take an infant. On safari.
Ryan’s little sister (over a decade younger than him), when she played with dolls still, had nothing but pink. She’s past dolls now, but EVERYTHING she plays with — from her Nintendo DS lite to her purse to her flip flops is pink.
There seems to be two color choices for little girls: pink, and pink sparkles. I’m not saying pink or sparkles don’t have their place, but that place is not EVERY SINGLE PLACE. And I’m totally pissed off by the gendering of what should be gender-neutral toys (though I feel all toys should be gender neutral, but that’s another post) — the cameras you were looking at, Rod, for instance. Why the hell are they blue and pink? Are boys going to take more manly photos or something? Or are we supposed to believe that all women pop out of the womb craving, CRAVING, pink — that we just can’t freaking get enough of it EVER.
I was reading an article a bit ago about how a single-color color scheme during childhood may be harmful for brain development. I can’t find it right now, though.
Notes