Thursday, April 1, 2010

An Addendum

It has come to my attention that my rant about gendered clothing has made people frightened when they buy gifts for M.  It is true that I would prefer her clothes not to say "Princess" or "Ballerina" but I have no objection to pink.  She looks really good in pink, as it happens, and since I have come to a place where I can wear pink myself in moderation, I have no objection to her wearing it.  Nor do I have an objection to hearts and flowers. 


See?  Pink hearts to the left of her, blue hearts to the right of her, green hearts down the middle.

My objection is more to the lack of both gender-neutral clothing, and girls' clothing that doesn't have pink on it.  Boys' clothes are covered in zoo animals, which ought to be neutral.  I guess my objection is to the automatic assumption that in order to be feminine, clothing must have pink on it (and the concomitant belief that a baby who is not clothed in head to toe pink must then be a boy.  Seriously, M was wearing blue pants yesterday with that shirt - the pants matched the blue hearts - and 3 people mistook her for a boy and then said that it was because of the pants).  I also think that for babies, clothing does not always need to signify gender, so I want there to be more neutrality.  And my complaints are directed at the clothing industry, not at the people who have been generous with presents for M.

No comments:

Post a Comment