Girl or boy?
It starts the minute a baby is born....a pink blanket for a girl, a blue blanket for a boy. If you find out the sex of your baby before birth, it actually starts earlier....your baby shower will be a sea of pastel pinks or baby blues.
People really don't know what to do with themselves if you don't obey the "rule."
Until my daughter was about two, she was bald as a cue ball. She also has gorgeous, huge blue eyes with very thick, long eyelashes, so I would dress her in a lot of blue to set them off. And we're not talking Detroit Lions jerseys and overalls, here....these were blue peasant shirts, flowered dresses, jackets trimmed with fake fur around the hood, etc. Invariably, some well-meaning, nice old lady would say, "Oh, he is a handsome one! What is his name?" When I had to answer with her (very female) first name, most of them would be nice and apologize, but a few would be all "but...but....she's in blue."
More from The Stir: Little Girl's Adorable 'Pink Stuff' Rant Should Be Lesson to Adults (VIDEO)
It wasn't always this way.
In this week's edition of "Your Kid Asked What?" the smart folks at Cafemom Studios delve into the history of colors for children. As it turns out, all children used to wear one color: White. It denoted children's innocence and purity and more to the point, it could be bleached when it inevitably got stained. Watch the video to learn the surprising history of the pink or blue symbolism.
Do you let your kids wear the "other" color?
Want to see more answers to the fun questions kids ask? Subscribe to Cafe Mom Studios on YouTube for this show and more.
Image via Charlotte.Morral/Flickr
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Comments 32
It's all ridiculous and arbitrary and 100 years ago it was the reverse.
My ds8 LOVES pink. Especially hot pink. His shoe laces are hot pink, he has pink tshirts and he's saving up for hot pink or purple skinny jeans. (Or the gold ones like the ones on the robot in the Party Rock Anthem video). Colors are just what they are. Colors. They don't need to be gender specific.
Oops. He's my ds9 now :(
My son wouldn't have ever openly opposed any color...especially since you can find polos in almost any color, including purple and pink. But thanks to his dad, any guy that wears those colors is considered 'gay'. How sad.
Personally I don't think we should be passing off these attitudes to our children. I have to admit though, pink looks especially sweet on baby girls. But too much of that stuff has them looking like they live in a cotton candy factory or something. And the fact that people act stupid when they see a baby girl wearing anything but pink, well you can't fix stupid.
Maybe one day this color bias will disappear...but as long as there are men around who think like my ex does, I doubt it. LOL!