Boys Can Wear Pink Too!

Our local Plunket Nurse was horrified when we chose a pink toothbrush for our infant son. Why not, said we. "But he's a boy!" she replied. SO? What is it about having to genderise colour??? And why does it have to start so jolly young? I get fed up with the limited range of colours to chose from in clothing. It's either all blue for boys, or all pink for girls. I found it really hard finding neutral clothes before Munchkin was born. I guess everyone making clothes assumed we'd find out what we were having. Well, we didn't. Anyway, back to Plunket. So we chose a pink toothbrush. Not that anyone is going to see it anyway. And why can't a boy like pink? Boyo used to wear fluro pink tshirts back in the 80s and thought he was very cool doing so. My brothers have worn pale pink shirts from time to time (and looked rather stilish in them, I might add - they are snazzy dressers, both). Munchkin has a pink outfit too. It is bright pink, and has animals in yellow, green and blue on it (i.e. lions, etc). I think it's really cute, but still find myself cautious about dressing him in it when we are going out. How silly. If people think my son is a girl, because they only see pink and don't look at him, that's their own fault. I don' think anyone could say he looks girly otherwise. He wore his pink top to church today, teamed up with some blue pants to match some of the animals. Didn't get a single comment! It just seems bizzare to me that here I am worrying about what colour my son's clothing (or toothbrush!) is, when there are so many more important things. Things like, what kind of attitudes will this child grow up with, is he learning to persevere, to interact with people, to be grateful, to laugh.

Amy
Sunday, 24th October, 2010