"Why do all the girls have to buy pink stuff"

[2xx1xy1JD]

I have to link this awesome video (unbroken, because this website wouldn't have a problem with FJ traffic):

http://www.kveller.com/blog/parenting/w ... ink-stuff/

[Koala]

She's outraged :lol: Adorable. Give em hell sweetheart :D

[SealFan1963]

Amen, sister! :dance:

[finleeport]

You know, I read that in the early 1900s, pink was meant for a boy, and blue was for girls.

[Hane]

Recently, on Facebook, I bemoaned the dearth of gender-neutral children's clothes (such as what I bought my daughter in the '80s--I loathed "aggressively masculine"/"aggressively feminine" clothes). Someone responded that it's "unnatural" to "try to make kids gender-neutral." Um, no. That wasn't my point. I just never wanted to cram pink sparkles down any little girl's throat.

[bubbabearzle]

Recently, on Facebook, I bemoaned the dearth of gender-neutral children's clothes (such as what I bought my daughter in the '80s--I loathed "aggressively masculine"/"aggressively feminine" clothes). Someone responded that it's "unnatural" to "try to make kids gender-neutral." Um, no. That wasn't my point. I just never wanted to cram pink sparkles down any little girl's throat.

I know exactly what you mean about the clothing - I have boys, but wanted to get an outfit for my niece for Christmas. Well, this particular niece HATES the color pink. I was shocked to find that manufacturers would slap something pink onto a completely non-pink outfit. I had to search far and wide to find something not pink, let alone something more gender neutral/appealing to a tomboy!

[Terrie]

Hang onto that attitude, kiddo. You're already smarter than many adults out there.

[Caramel]

Kind of reminds me of my then five-year-old daughter's remark when she was along for maternity wear shopping (admittedly, at Ross or TJ Maxx or someplace similar) when I was pregnant with my twins: "Is there something about having babies inside of her that makes a grown up woman want to have a Tweetybird sewed onto everything she wears?"

Um, no, sweetheart, and that's why maternity clothes suck.

[Hane]

I was shocked to find that manufacturers would slap something pink onto a completely non-pink outfit.

So true! No plain ol' blue jeans, no plain ol' sweatshirts!

[Seven Severn]

A few months ago I was looking through my old baby book and school book (grade school class pics, etc.) and one thing I noticed was that there was no pink. Zero. Zilch. I started kindergarten in '68 and Mom took color snapshots of my class every year. Year after year we girls wore various shades of brown, blue, yellow, green, white, orange, a little red, but absolutely no pink. It just didn't exist. In high school in the late '70s a neighbor sometimes wore a pink, fuzzy sweater and it really stood out and was considered a little unusual. It's odd that pink has been pushed so heavily in recent years. I liked to know the reasoning behind it. I know it's just marketing, but...why?

[thoughtful]

Riley rocks.

And the shades of pink they show in the clothes and toys meant for girls are often really repulsive to me.

[2xx1xy1JD]

To be fair, as a child of the 1970s, I have to point out that my mother dressed me in orange polyester jumpsuits with huge collars, along with pants with a hideous clown pattern. We were also subjected to Polly Flinders dresses.

[Elle]

You know, I read that in the early 1900s, pink was meant for a boy, and blue was for girls.

Pink is a soft red, and red, being a hard color, was masculine. Blue is the color of sky and dainty flowers, so girl. Then it changed at some point.

Once upon a time, all children wore lace dresses with their hair in curls.

That is Franklin Roosevelt as a child, and his lacy dress, curly hair, feathered hat, and shiny buckle shoes...were gender-neutral back during that time. Men back then didn't grow up to be pansy-asses. They were the archetypal "manly-men", "manlier" than most men, including dumbs fundies like Matt Chancey, today can ever hope to be, yet a lot of people are worried kids dressed "wrong" will grow up screwed up. Um, no, they get screwed up by society telling them they're wrong. It's a really new thing in history for kids to have separate clothes. Once upon a time, when cloth was very valuable and laundry by hand as well as sewing, few people had separate boy and girl clothes. It all just passed on down to the next, and no one thought twice about it.

[Elle]

As far as my daughter goes, she has lots of dresses because SHE likes them. We don't care if she likes toy trucks and monsters. She can have what she likes. But dresses...OMG the frillier and twirlier, the happy she is. I think a lot of little boys might like something at their waists twirling too.

She also loves pink. I have a pink-ban when pregnant because I am NOT a fan of pink. My own favorite color is blue followed by purple, and most of what I wear is black with dark navy. Yet leave it to her, she adores pink. Her favorite skirt is this hot-pink and black ruffly think that looks at home in a rock concert. Purple and blue are close seconds. Every now and then she'll like orange or brown, but not usually.

Her favorite toys are baby dolls (Barbies and Bratz are permanently banned from our home) and dinosaurs. Oh god, she loves dinosaurs!

My brother played with my dolls and I played with his Tonka trucks. We aren't screwed up over it. I mean it, kids get screwed up by being told there's something wrong with them, NOT because they play with opposite-gender toys or wear the "wrong" color.

[Feberin]

I recently read the book Cinderella Ate My Daughter, which was interesting. I'm expecting a litle girl and trying to keep her wardrobe to have multiple hues. I don't mind pink but she's not going to wear it 24/7. And no gigantic hair things either! What really bugs me are the girl versions of toys. Do the legos really have to be pink and purple? I know its just a scam to make more money but still it annoys me.

[Terrie]

My younger brother coveted my My Little Ponies. I adored matchbox cars. We're both (more or less) normal adults.

[LastChance]

I love her!

My son's current favorite movies is tangled and I don't think I'm doing him any damage by letting him like princesses.

[ADoyle90815]

My brother played with my dolls, and I often played with his cars, yet we're both reasonably normal adults. Now, my niece is into the Cars movies and toys, but she is still very much a girl as she loves Dora as well. When we buy her Legos, we get what was used to be gender neutral ones, and not the pink and purple crap that is pushed on girls.

[2xx1xy1JD]

In case anyone is sick of Cinderella and any other Disney princesses, please read Robert Munsch's The Paper Bag Princess. It's perfect, and makes the ideal gift for any FJ baby girl.

Basic plot: Dragon carries off Prince Ronald, who was to marry Princess Elizabeth. Her clothes got burned, so she wears a paper bag. She goes after the dragon, uses her brains to outwit him, and rescue Prince Ronald. Ronald insults her clothes, she calls him a bum and decides not to marry him after all.

[SealFan1963]

A few months ago I was looking through my old baby book and school book (grade school class pics, etc.) and one thing I noticed was that there was no pink. Zero. Zilch. I started kindergarten in '68 and Mom took color snapshots of my class every year. Year after year we girls wore various shades of brown, blue, yellow, green, white, orange, a little red, but absolutely no pink. It just didn't exist. In high school in the late '70s a neighbor sometimes wore a pink, fuzzy sweater and it really stood out and was considered a little unusual. It's odd that pink has been pushed so heavily in recent years. I liked to know the reasoning behind it. I know it's just marketing, but...why?

I also started kindergarten in 1968 and my dress was brown and orange plaid with a little white blouse underneath. It seems like I always had a pink dress at Easter and a red dress at Christmas, but other than that it was the more gender neutral colors of the times. I also had a fuzzy pink sweater in high school. ;)

My son was born in 1992 and I was so sick of red and blue by the time he was 2 years old, it seemed to be the only color little boy's clothes came in. I got so much pink at my baby shower with my daughter that it was just about all she wore the first year of her life, but if I bought anything for her it definitely was not pink. Now at 13 she LOVES the color pink.

[FloraDoraDolly]

A few months ago I was looking through my old baby book and school book (grade school class pics, etc.) and one thing I noticed was that there was no pink. Zero. Zilch. I started kindergarten in '68 and Mom took color snapshots of my class every year. Year after year we girls wore various shades of brown, blue, yellow, green, white, orange, a little red, but absolutely no pink. It just didn't exist. In high school in the late '70s a neighbor sometimes wore a pink, fuzzy sweater and it really stood out and was considered a little unusual. It's odd that pink has been pushed so heavily in recent years. I liked to know the reasoning behind it. I know it's just marketing, but...why?

I noticed the same thing when I was on Facebook the other day. A friend posted one of her old grade school class photos from the late 1970s. No pink. And none of that freakin' glitter or that trashy shiny junk! The only time girls wore that stuff when I was a kid was if they were in a dance recital.

But I wonder if maybe the mothers today choose all this pink stuff for their little girls precisely because they didn't have it when they were kids? Maybe they look back at those old photos of the 1970s polyester jumpsuits and the 1980s striped polo shirts and wish they'd had more clothes that were pink and girly?

[synchroswimr]

In case anyone is sick of Cinderella and any other Disney princesses, please read Robert Munsch's The Paper Bag Princess. It's perfect, and makes the ideal gift for any FJ baby girl.

Basic plot: Dragon carries off Prince Ronald, who was to marry Princess Elizabeth. Her clothes got burned, so she wears a paper bag. She goes after the dragon, uses her brains to outwit him, and rescue Prince Ronald. Ronald insults her clothes, she calls him a bum and decides not to marry him after all.

That is awesome!

[Islandmom]

In case anyone is sick of Cinderella and any other Disney princesses, please read Robert Munsch's The Paper Bag Princess. It's perfect, and makes the ideal gift for any FJ baby girl.

Basic plot: Dragon carries off Prince Ronald, who was to marry Princess Elizabeth. Her clothes got burned, so she wears a paper bag. She goes after the dragon, uses her brains to outwit him, and rescue Prince Ronald. Ronald insults her clothes, she calls him a bum and decides not to marry him after all.

My 4 year old LOVES this book. We do have some pink, but it is by no means the majority of her clothing. It is pretty hard to steer clear of. Now DD loves to wear her tan carhart overalls and match her daddy on the weekends when we head out to play in the tundra, and I LOVE it.

As for toys, DD has never been into dolls much, but man that kid loves tiny animals and dinos, cars, and egypt. So not a barbie kid. Amen to whoever said it is societies expectations that mess up kids.

[CustardTart]

A few months ago I was looking through my old baby book and school book (grade school class pics, etc.) and one thing I noticed was that there was no pink. Zero. Zilch. I started kindergarten in '68 and Mom took color snapshots of my class every year. Year after year we girls wore various shades of brown, blue, yellow, green, white, orange, a little red, but absolutely no pink. It just didn't exist. In high school in the late '70s a neighbor sometimes wore a pink, fuzzy sweater and it really stood out and was considered a little unusual. It's odd that pink has been pushed so heavily in recent years. I liked to know the reasoning behind it. I know it's just marketing, but...why?

Ha! I'm your age and I never realized this! You're so right! WTH? I mean, I like pink, a lot, but it looks like pink pushed on girls is a recent thing. You got me looking at old photos, too, and as girly as my mom had me dress, no pink. Things that make you go hmmm.

[littlehouse]

We had grand plans of dressing up our 2 year old as elizabeth this past halloween and her sister as the dragon. I can recite the story by heart.

We avoid pink everywhere we can and opt for more bold patterns. Tea Collection has great pieces. We do have some pink for the girls, but that is mostly stuff that has been gifted to them.

I am doing my best to avoid the disney princess craze.