Color and culture: the world's gone crazy

People really lose their minds when it comes to colors.

Why do you care what gender I am? I'm just a baby. It's not like you can date me.

Photo from this article.

Like, really seriously lose their minds.

My aunt had a baby boy. A lady from her church hand made him a beautiful baby blanket. The blanket was mostly green and yellow with some extra detailing on it. There was a little bit of pink on the blanket. When her in laws saw this blanket they yelled at her for 'trying to turn their grandson gay' or 'trying to make him into a girl'. They weren't joking. They seriously believed that a little bit of pink of a baby blanket was going to turn the little baby boy into either a woman or a homosexual. What.

Is this a chicken/egg situation? Girls aren't girls BECAUSE they are dressed in pink. Someone needs to explain correlation and causation to these people.

It's really frustrating to see how rigid people are when it comes to color and gender. 100 years ago pink and reds were considered too passionate and strong to be for women, they were male colors. Blue was calming and was appropriate for women. In fact, before the 1940s, all babies were dress pretty much the same.

 

This cute little girl grew up to be president! 

President FDR, age 2 and 1/2

Photo from this article.

It's a miracle I grew up to be a straight man, since my mom dressed me like a girl when I was a baby!!

President FDR, age 52

Photo from this webpage.

The really sad thing to me is the insistence on keeping gender so rigid and separate. I am a woman but I am proud of my masculine traits. I feel like they contribute positively to my experience as a human being. I adore my husband's feminine traits. I would never have fallen in love with a hyper masculine macho man. I truly hope my children have a mix of feminine and masculine traits, and that they embrace them.

Now, you may be rolling your eyes and saying GET OVER IT, WHO CARES and QUIT JUST TRYING TO BE WEIRD. Right? I should just dress my boys in blue and my girls in pink because it's what everyone does and if I don't I'm only bringing scorn and confusion upon my children.

The thing is, it DOES matter because people react differently to babies based on what they perceive the gender of the baby is. Seriously. There have been actual studies done about babies, gender, and socialization. Basically, if people think a baby is a girl they will be more gentle with her, treat her nicer, allow her to cry more, and will perceive what she is doing differently than if they think she is a boy. If people think a baby is a boy they will play rough with him, discourage him from crying, and, again, whatever he does is filtered through this 'boy' filter. I highly encourage you to read this article that summarizes a bunch of different studies over babies and gender.

So, I don't want people to socialize my sons to be macho and insensitive. I don't want them to scold him more harshly if he cries. I don't want him to be reinforced to be rough. I want my sons to be strong and sensitive, like their dad. I don't want people to socialize my daughters to be weak and passive. I want my girls to be strong and sweet. I want my kids to be whatever people they ARE but I don't want society to push push push them to be some imagined image of MAN and WOMAN from when they are just little babies! I want both of my children to experience love and nurturing and active play and baby dolls and legos and toy cars. 

I don't want my baby girls to always receive only 'girl' toys and my baby boys to always receive only 'boy' toys. 

I want the whole world for all my kids: the whole range of beautiful, ugly, fun, crazy, analytical, creative, sensitive, and strong experiences. I don't want them to grow up to be good girls and good boys, I want them to grow up to be excellent, amazing, well-rounded human beings.

Annotated Bibliography

Boy Pink: My son's favorite color is pink and people are losing their minds. Carinn Jade. http://www.mommyish.com/2012/11/02/boy-pink/ 2 Nov 2012

In this article the author discusses the reactions people have to her son's favorite color: pink. Most people try to persuade him to choose something 'boy' colored, some even attack his masculinity.


When did girls start wearing pink? Jeanne Maglaty. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/When-Did-Girls-Start-Wearing-Pink.html. 8 April 2011.

In this article, the author traces the history of infants and fashion, touching on the evolution of the gendering of color preferences.


Baby boy? Baby girl? Baby X! Bethany Brookshire.  http://scientopia.org/blogs/scicurious/2011/03/09/baby-boy-baby-girl-baby-x/. 9 March 2011

In this article, the author summarizes a bunch of studies over how people react to and perceive the actions of babies based on what gender they think they are.