I know I´m not alone on this quest to make my girl enjoy and have available all colours. But I give up, it´s impossible. The most we can do is chose different colors when we buy some things and not always, because sometimes there simply aren´t options rather than pink stuff for girls. And boys have even less options. Their outfits usually have much less corridors of clothes in the stores.
I tried to buy a present to a little girl one time. I went for the stove and pans (don´t get me wrong here, this toy is not about sexism, any kid absolutely love this) and even those were all in pink. With some luck you could find purple.
I would definitely buy the same toy for my own little boy (if I had one), but the fact is that you only find it in pink and many parents simply won´t let their boys wear pink, that´s it: it´s a toy just for girls. How stupid is that? (the same occurs to all dolls, kitchen and housing apparatus, I wonder Why)
As soon as kids start to speak at two years old, they can say how this is for girls and that is for boys based on the colors. The other day my daughter and a little boy were playing at home (they are both 3) she came out with some buckles and he said: “that´s for girls!”, he started to pick up the green and blue ones and then said: “These are for boys”.
It wasn´t always like this
According to Wikipedia, pink was a color for boys and blue for girls from the 1920s till the 1940s. Back then they associated red with courage, so boys were in that spectrum. Blue on the other hand was associated with calm and tranquility, therefore a girlish color.
Though there are studies that show a genetic preference for reds and tones in that spectrum by women and blue by man, the fact is that the way we play those colors today is mostly influenced by the culture.
But the nice thing on this subject that I found was this: little children pick up fast which color is associated to each genre and they stick to it as a way of holding their identity. So in a way it´s kind of cool that they have this tool (the color of the stuff) to hang on as in a way to express themselves and belong to a group and feel safe there.
Yes, so they probably choose their colors based on culture and on being on a comfort zone. Interesting. Makes me wonder if we should shake their comfort zone sometimes a little bit, by messing up with the colors that are so stereotyped.
I will keep trying my best to give Luísa other options. Simply because the amount of pink clothes and toys is just annoying. Is there a way out of pink world anyway?
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This may seem a little wiggy. A doctor (M.D.) who also practices electro-acupuncture told me that I should not wear pink. When I asked why, he said that pink makes you weak. He then had me look at a pink object while he sent an electric current through an acupuncture point. The machine was making a certain sound when I looked at the object. My doctor told me that this is the sound that cancer also makes. This is also the doctor who cured my lead singer of breast cancer by using electro-acupuncture and homeopathics. I try to avoid pink now, just in case.
Wow Patrique, that´s some disturbing fact. Now that you talked about this, it came to my mind that yes, pink is a bit of a depressive colour unlike it´s primary red, which is full of energy.
It´s also the colour more associated with love, so not all hope in not harming the girls with this is dead…
There is a lot more about what´s going on in the concepts and the behavior around the domination of pink for feminine stuff. Here´s an interesting movement I found, PinkStinks and their about page goes like this:
“PinkStinks is a campaign and social enterprise that challenges the ‘culture of pink’ which invades every area of girls’ lives. We focus on providing real role models who will inspire and motivate girls to achieve great things based on ability and effort and not how you look.”
Oho its interesting. So much I hate pink (really) My bedroom is second time (in different house) painted half pink half purple. I find this strainge myself but I feel its calming. I wouldnt wear pink tho. My daughter doesnt like pink at all, she always chooses purple instead. All of the toys I buy I choose “unisex” the ones with red green yellow and blue.
Pink does stink!
I have been searching for pots and pans and/ or a tea-set for my little boy for months now but they are all pink and that totally vile candy puke girly pink at that. I maybe would settle for a slightly manlier dusky pink or even a good old shocking pink but i draw the line at puke pink not just for my son but also for myself.
I am very close to just giving up and buying the puke pink disney princesses pans but i can’t quite do it even though I am sure my son would love them regardless of their colour and girly princesses. I should maybe just get over my own anti-pink feelings and do it to shake up the stereotypes a bit even though my macho partner would have a fit ( aha! another compelling reason to do it). It was a battle to get a kids brush and mop set in our house and a miracle that isn’t pink although it is decorated with hearts.
Also this pink plague has spread into womens clothing too. The shops are so full of puke pink and nasty girly pastels that non-pink/pastel people such as myself are forced into wearing black in the height of summer.
I never realized that pink was quite as sinister as patrique said though. Fascinating…
laurinha ….
I love that you’re not opposed to buying your son pink on principle. But please think about the messages you’re sending with the language you use – you referred several times to ‘girly’ pink. These little things we say can influence our children’s attitudes about gender stereotypes just as much as the whole yukky princess stuff.
I hate pink. My 4 year old girl loves it. I’m almost looking forward to when she’s a teenager and announces that she wants to paint her room black!
you ladies are funny .. YEA, BOO to pink ;( !!!
Feels good to see other people sharing this pink rejection, while everywhere we are forced to accept it as the given beautiful colour for girls.
I just wish we could live in a world where all colours were treated equally beautiful, like they all are. Unfortunatelly, it´s impossible to see it on the short run.
I remembered the little boy I took care of before I had my daughter playing with a whole kitchen set that was not pink at all. I trolled around the internet for a minute and found it for anyone who’s interested. There’s a couple different kitchen set ups, pots and pans and all that.
http://www.melissaanddoug.com/food-kitchen-toys
I agree with you that all kids love this so when we get one for our daughter (or ask her grandparents to get it for Christmas) this is probably what we’ll aim at.
Thanks for the link, Jenna.
I read recently that a group of socio-scientists tested colors on kids from all cultures including tribes and found that before their second birthdays all kids chose a pink object above other colors when presented with the choice. There were a bunch of explanations for this including a relation with the mothers mouth (gums and tongue) as the main reason…. When we smile down at them!
Nice to know that. No wonder Waldorf kindergartens tend to have pink walls too.
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