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Feminism: Sex & gender discussions

What's wrong with blue clothes for girls?

39 replies

StormGlass · 05/09/2012 20:50

I was out shopping today, and while in Boots, stopped to look at the baby clothes to see if there was anything I liked for DS.

A couple came along, with a baby girl in a pushchair, and started looking at the clothes too. The dad picked up a white sundress with a pattern of blue birds on it, and said "How about this for [popular girls name]?" The mum took one look, and said "No, it's got blue on it"

I found that a little depressing. Why can't a little girl have a sundress with blue on it? Surely no-one's going to think she's a boy, given that it's a dress, just because it's got blue birds on it?

I find this obsession with colour coded baby clothes very annoying.

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24Hours · 05/09/2012 20:52

Agree, its daft and depressing

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Nagoo · 05/09/2012 21:00

The woman in clarks today was looking through the book as I was asking if they had any baby shoes not in pink or purple. She saw some grey ones and tried to flick past them as they were 'the boys design'.

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PretzelTime · 05/09/2012 21:04

It's really odd because adult women are 'allowed' to wear blue. Why can't little girls wear it, would they look too manly in blue? Confused

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rosy71 · 05/09/2012 21:05

How silly. My favourite colour as a child was blue.

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AGoldenOrange · 05/09/2012 21:08

DD is always wearing blue my fav colour

I was informed by one woman that I will turn my dd gay Hmm

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PretzelTime · 05/09/2012 21:09

I must be gay just like 99% of the female population - I'm wearing blue jeans right now!

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YouForgotToCallMePeppa · 05/09/2012 21:10

I was once told off by a woman in a shop for transporting my DD in a blue pram. It was a boy's pram, apparently Confused.

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IvanaNap · 05/09/2012 21:12

maybe they were shopping for a specific outfit / occasion?

Nothing wrong with children in any colour, obviously. Stupid peppa pig with her "pink is a silly colour for a football kit" Hmm

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FastidiaBlueberry · 05/09/2012 21:12

Blue is the traditional colour for girls, as it was always associated with the virgin mary and therefore considered suitable. Red was good for boys as it was associated with Saint Joseph and was a "strong" colour. The red would fade in the wash over time to become pink hence pink being a boy's colour until the early 20th century when there was a bit of a fashion change.

So next time someone goes on about tradition, tell 'em about that one.

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greenhill · 05/09/2012 21:13

My favourite colour was blue as a child in the 70's and my DM had problems trying to buy blue dresses, but it was easy to buy blue trousers, so have great photos of me in every colour except pink.

Plenty of men I worked with had pink shirts, so they don't question their colour choices.

I dress my DD in a variety of colours, but as soon as she went to school she told me that her favourite colour is pink and that it is a girl colour. Sigh.

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IvanaNap · 05/09/2012 21:14

Oh I used to love blue too as a young 'un - until I realised it really didn't suit me (v.pale skin + blue = death warmed up)

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FarloWearsAGoldRibbon · 05/09/2012 21:15

DD has been in blue often since she was born. It was her favourite colour for years.

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kim147 · 05/09/2012 21:15

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

StormGlass · 05/09/2012 21:34

FastidiaBlueberry, loving the historical explanation that reverses todays blue / pink expectations Grin

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catkind · 05/09/2012 21:38

Hah, I've been known to be like that about clothes that have pink in them for my daughter. Just as unreasonable, but I don't like pink, I don't like the fact that so many girls clothes have pink somewhere about them and I also don't like being told she "should" wear pink. She has some lovely blue/green dresses.

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FoodUnit · 06/09/2012 07:40

I believe campaigners (like Pink Stinks) are starting to have some success in changing the ridiculous extremes gender colour coding got to at the height of the backlash against feminism a few years ago. When my nephew got a scooter from my mum they only sold them in blue or pink, but now they have a variety of colours and you can even buy new parts to repace the blue or pink of the originals, so my daughter got a much more interesting-looking one for her birthday. I think generally there's a lot less 'backlash' behaviour all round as feminism is being embraced again (albeit some are getting sucked into a confused pomo version Sad).

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bobbledunk · 06/09/2012 14:50

I love light blues and navy on dd, it's stupid to not let a girl have something because it has blue in it! I hate too much pink. Children should be dressed in a variety of bright colours.

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grimbletart · 06/09/2012 16:20

Can anyone explain when this obsession with pink started - presumably it was some marketing ploy?

My 'children' are in their 40s now and when they were small in the 1970s there was an amazing range of patterns and colours in baby, toddler and children's clothes. I clearly remember them in (for example) bright orange babygros, ones that were navy and red check, others that were stripy (like a wasp) and so on.

Their budgie bikes (the fashionable kids' bikes at the time) were in electric green and although there were some pink toys it was not an epidemic of pink fluff as there is now. So much more choice.

And yes, they had plenty of blue clothes as well....

Now you go to choose something for a toddler and you are either blinded by a sea of pink or depressed by rows of camouflage (for boys).

I sometimes wonder if it is a ghastly plot to shove us all back in our gender boxes, a bit like the mentalist Australian archbishop in the thread on marriage vows...Grin

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Machadaynu · 06/09/2012 16:27

Almost everything we have bought in the last three months has been blue, if there has been a choice, as the kid has decided that it's her favourite colour.

It's quite hard to get blue things for her if you want dresses or knickers, but socks, trousers, shorts and t-shirts are easy, we just get 'boys' ones.

That said, her current shoes were a bargain. Little velcro-sandal things with embroidered flowers - very girly. Except the flowers are blue. Reduced to £3.99. The pink ones weren't reduced at all. Bargain. Of course next year they just won't make the blue ones.

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IWipeArses · 06/09/2012 16:37

DD 11 months wears very little blue. Because she mostly wears hand me downs from her brother and I never put him in blue. Grin

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HipHopOpotomus · 07/09/2012 11:49

Nothing is wrong with blue for girls, but do bear in mind that some people are simply daft.

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devilinside · 07/09/2012 12:45

Fortunately DD's favourite colour is blue (only because she knows it's my favourite colour). I think a lot of gender stereotyping does come from parents.

I personally never wore an item of pink clothing until I was 18 (when hot pink was in fashion)

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DawnOfTheDee · 07/09/2012 12:48

A lot of my DD's clothes are blue because, well, I like the colour and think they look nice on her. A lot of people refer to her as 'he' though as I think they use colour as an indicator of sex. Bit daft really but it doesn't bother me and I don't mind correcting them.

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plutocrap · 07/09/2012 12:58

Yesterday, DD was wearing a navy top and cardi with purple trousers (ruched at the ankles, too!), and still was referred to twice as a boy! Confused I normally correct people when she's wearing all blue (or some bits of brown or green or another bloody colour), but yesterday I just couldn't be bothered.

In any case, it won't hurt her to get a bit of "male-spectrum" interaction: don't people do more dynamic things to boy babies, rather than just gurning at them about how pretty they are? Yuck. I do think my DD is lovely, but I would bloody like her to be interesting and clever as well!

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blonderthanred · 07/09/2012 23:44

Isn't it the case that usually its ok for girls to wear 'brights' or boys' clothes but it's completely unacceptable for boys to wear pink? This is more sinister to me as it seems like people are terrified of boys being seen as girlish / weak. I always buy gender neutral for friends' kids but wish I could go further than that. But that's one boundary it seems impossible to break.

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