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Friday, November 22, 2013

Girls, gender colors, and princess culture


We decided not to find out the gender of our baby while we were pregnant. And it was funny to me how often people asked "but what color clothes are you going to buy for it?". Seems to me that there are lots of colors that a baby can wear that aren't pink or blue. But we as a culture seem to have certain ideas about gender and what each gender should be. But a good reminder that these things are subjective is this article which notes that until the 1940s boys were actually encouraged to wear pink and girls blue!

 Even now that I know I have a little girl, I still buy her a lot of neutral colored clothing. And because I dress her like I like to dress, sometimes I actually worry that all he has is grey clothing. But becuase she's blond and blue eyed I also actually buy her a lot of blue clothing since it looks good on her. It's not that I'm anti-pink (she has a few pink items), she just has a range of colors in her wardrobe. The result is that people often assume she's a boy if she's out in her navy striped top and grey leggins. Oh well.

She's still young but I know we'll quickly get to the age where she will start deciding what she likes and what she doesn't. I was not into "girly" things as a kid. I broke my mom's heart by refusing all my dresses and skirts by insisting I only wear overalls. I preferred stuffed animals to dolls. I had no desire to be a princess. But, that was me. I want to avoid exposing my daughter to Princess culture, but I also know it will happen. And when it happens she will choose if she likes it or not. I need to accept that all I can do is try to be a good female role model for her. She is going to explore her femininity in her own ways. I'm hear to at least give her good options. We'll see how it goes...

Also, have you seen this commercial? Adorable :)



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