Is it just me, or are the kids fashion getting more and more restrictive?
Every time I want to buy some piece of clothing for my kids I can choose between pink, for girls,
and blue, for boys.
What happened to all the other colours?
And when you finally find something in a different colour the fashion facists have made new rules.
Since when is red too feminime for a boy? Ferrari/fire engine/national-team-jersey-RED!
Would it be such a problem if you couldn’t immediately tell the gender of a pre-schooler from their
hairstyle and clothing?
I don’t remember it being like that when I grew up.
What happened?
Why is it important for parents now to have the baby clothes show if it’s a boy or a girl?
Could be because kids are getting switched at birth more often nowadays…so, color coding makes a little bit of sense. It doesn’t make sense that only two colors are used, though, because the kid could still get switched.
I think it rather unlikely that any mother, having given birth to a girl, would happily go home and not notice, well before the kid was aged 16, that pink was just not working.
It’s a much greater problem than that. With the exception of a few, (mainly movies stars and other celebrities), most people regard being fashionable these days as “looking like everybody else”. Teenagers are torn between a desire to be different and a desire to conform. They are far better at the latter.
It benefits the manufacturers, because they can plan ahead, dictate what everyone will be wearing, and mass produce cloths and clothes by the million. They can pile them high, knowing that they will be sure to sell. All they need to do is get a few high profile sightings of what they have decided will be “in”, on suitable clothes horses and the stuff sells better than sun block in a Sahara nudist colony. The “models”, job done, then go back to their designer gear.
Face it, people like you and people like me are just a pain in the neck. Get the kid a pink top and blue pants. Show them who is boss.
Whilst I agree with what Naomi said, I think the original subject is a different issue.
I think in this society it is deeply ingrained that males have an advantage in life over women. (Remember that maleness is socially constructed as well as a biological ‘fact’)
My story is this: I gave birth to my daughter Jessica and she had lovely big blue eyes and blonde hair. I happily dressed her in blue and did not mind if people thought she was a girl or a boy. I happily went around the next 15 years perfecty staisfied with two daughters and my feminism.
Then I had a son. And was totally totally horrified that I did not want people to think he was a girl. I could no more dress him in pink than I could watch Big Brother.
I have since found out that this is rather a common phenomena. Partly to do with the priveleged position of males in society (footballers come to mind) and I think slightly to do with the more restricted roles that males have in this society compared to females.
There must be no mistake whether your baby is a boy or not. So dress him in blue and the girls in pink.
I really wasn’t trying to be a rebel. I was just dropped into rebellion because conformity raised the bar while I wasn’t looking.
Anyway, pink top and blue pants won’t work. Pink trumps blue. If someone is wearing a blue outfit with a pink button on it, it’s a girl. No doubt about it. And while we’re reverse-engineering the system, hairstyle trumps clothing. While my daughter still had short hair (above shoulders, not crew cut or anything like that) she has several times been mistaken for a boy while wearing a dress. Once even a dress with pink flowers on it.
That makes sense, even though I never consiously thought about it that way. I think the restricted male roles might be a sideeffect of the priveleged position in society. If you step outside the norm, it’s also a step down.
As I remember it, it wasn’t that bad. Not in the 70’es when everyone where equal, wore the same kind of denims and T-shirts, had long hair etc. When I met other kids for the first time they’d ask if I was a boy or a girl. When I had answered they either said “wanna play” or “we don’t play with boys”. After that roles where established and everyone knew how to behave.
Now that I think about it, the ID bracelets they got at the hospital when they where born where also pink and blue. They had their social security numbers on them too, as an extra precausion.
Does that mean that since my son wears red my marriage has become less sanct/sancty?/sanctitious?/sanctioned? (does the word I’m looking for even exist? ) I hadn’t noticed the change.
The hair thing is really funny. My son (aged 6) stated confidently many times that the way you could tell the difference between boys and girls was that girsl had long hair and boys have short hair. Despite the fact that my hair is (and always has been) as short as his and his father’s. Social conditioning triumphs real-life family experience!
The comment about the 70s. I’ve never really thought about this before but it’s interesting how things went from very formal and conformist to relaxed but it seems to be returning back to unrelaxed again.
Agree its pain Borges. I have 1 red top for Ed (who is 3 months old) and I love it, its also the only top that has had people ask how old my baby girl is. He does also have some lovely bright pink muslin cloths for moping up dribble. All his tiny baby stuff was white which was boring, now hes a bit bigger it’s mainly blue as its been handed down from a friends boy. I like multi coloured striped clothes for him or plain colours with no logos. Hes about to grow into a green vest and a black and red stripey top.
Sarah
After having girls and the vast range of different clothes there are for them (once they have grown out of the blue/pink babygrow stage) I leave the buying of clothes for Sam to Jim cos it’s just too boring. (Although he does look cute in jeans).
Enough of this gender and clothing as social construct debate!
Why don’t we just let all the little chilluns run about in their bithday suits,
“for as the old saying goes, let your children run wild and free.”
This means you are not conforming to others ideas of colour association in relation to gender, have minimal washing to do, and there would be no confusion about their gender.
mark
I think it should… last time I checked colors dont have a gender. I think I have a sock and T-shirt in every color of your standard 12 color box of crayolas, including pink.
) I hadn’t noticed the change.