To dress my baby boy in pink

I agree there is absolutely nothing wrong with a baby boy wearing pink although I would draw the line at bows, frills & lace. My 2 year old grandson given his colouring would look lovely in pink. The trouble is out of all the children in the family both in this generation & the previous generation he is the epitomy of a little tough guy who suits his mother's choice of clothes more suitable to his behaviour & personality. He just doesn't suit the more feminine looking styles.

The term toxic masculinity mentioned a few times here is not an expression I support having met & dealt with toxic bullying people of both sexes throughout my life.

I haven’t rtft so someone will likely have said it, but to all those saying dressing him in pink won’t do anything for his ‘soft side’: actually research was done where babies were dressed in pink and blue, and adults spoke to them in markedly different ways, being more soothing with perceived girls and physical with perceived boys. So the shaping of what it means to be boy or girl socially begins from birth, and is affected by clothing. Good on you op, being part of fighting stereotypes, one little action at a time.

I don't think having a handshake constitutes as toxic masculinity. That's just the latest buzzword that's thrown around. I wouldn't dress my son in pink but dress your child how you want and pay no mind. Putting him in pink doesn't mean your making him have a 'softer side' though that's really odd. He can't even speak yet, you don't know what his personality will be like.

We dressed our son in pink as a baby and he chooses to wear it (and paint his bedroom in it) now as a child :)

My 38 yr old son wore pink as a baby. He still wears pink now, and so does his son.

It’s just a colour!

You lost me when you said ‘my son can have a softer side’. Pink isn’t soft, and saying that perpetuates the stereotype!
Your kid can wear whatever you want to put him in until he has his own opinion. Plenty of adult men choose to wear pink. Who cares what other people think?

Social history is that Pknk
was for boys and blue was
for girls . It changed when Queen Mary left the hospital in London and didn’t want to
reveal The sex of the new baby and to throw reporters off the scent she dressed her baby in blue and it was reported in the press she had had a girl, Yet she hadn’t From then on it became fashionable to dress
girls in pink and boys in blue .

I know 3 adult men who wear pink polo's regularly.

I did laugh at "thats a bit unusual...."

Other way around, but someone implied that I was weird for putting a blue blanket on my newborn the day she was born.

The hospital had wrapped her in it, and they only have blue blankets.

i did buy blue blankets for her for home too, because it's just a colour!

Years ago,I was a skint single parent with 3 babies

Girl then two boys

She wore blue and id often put the lads in pink baby gros for bed (their sisters old stuff-all immaculate as babies grow so fast)

My family found out and went apeshit-apparently they'd grow up gay/pedophiles just because they'd worn a pale pink babygro

You can imagine the meltdown when I bought the lads a tiara each and a baby/buggy (and when I put their sisters old tights on them under their trousers instead of socks)

They where told to stay in their lane-my babies,my choice,my money-i wasn't spending money i didnt have for stuff they already had (just in the 'wrong' colour') and I certainly wasn't going to force them to play with the 'right' toys

They where not going to spend their own money on the 'right' items and I would dress them how I saw fit

All grew up and none have grown up gay (and it wouldn't have mattered if they where) and none have abused children

Your baby,your rules and boys look amazing in pink-my younger ds really suited it

Is his grandfather your own dad, or is there 'toxic masculinity' on your side of the family and now you're afraid the other side is the same way?

If the person with the raised eyebrow is from your own family, it will hardly have come as a shock that he'd rather not see his grandson dressed in pink. Obviously there's nothing wrong with the occasional pink item of clothing, but don't be surprised if people assume your son is a girl as a result.

Personally, I'd probably not choose lots of pink for a baby boy, because it feels as much of a statement as only dressing him in blue or insisting he play with overtly 'masculine' toys. It sounds like you'll be facing some issues with your family that are worse than a raised eyebrow. Totally up to you how you want to deal with it. I'd just roll my eyes, but I also wouldn't bother trying to argue about it.

You misunderstand the term. It is not equating masculinity with ‘toxic’ as though that were a Homeric constant characteristic, eg ‘wily Odysseus’, ‘rosy-fingered dawn’, where the permanent adjective applies regardless of changing circs or behaviour.

Toxic masculinity is macho crap gone very rancid; it’s a distillation of all that is regrettable in male behaviour, and 99.9% of the time, it’s violence-based, and deeply misogynistic. Few here know men who’d qualify, I hope.

I'm a happily married man late 50s ,I wear cerise to baby pink sweat shirts ,polo shirts.
The men that go on about pink being gay etc doth protest too much.
It's a colour nothing more nothing less.🤯

You don't understand what toxic masculinity means, do you? You think it means thinking men are toxic, don't you?
Why not Google it. You'll be surprised when you see what it really means.

Hear, hear. I now have only good men in my life (a small minority, male relatives, were not so I cut them out). If some posters don't, change that.

I love my little boy (now toddler) in pink. Specially dark pink tees. It suits his blonde/blue eyes and colouring. Same as lilac.
I get many in the girls section.

I don't care!

My DH wears floral shirts and my DS wears floral baby grows. I wear pyjamas with dinosaurs. If he looks cute and is comfortable, it's all good! I draw the line at unicorns, but I wouldn't be buying that for a girl either

This.
Teaching boys that being men is bad is just going to make the problems worse.

The play kitchen we bought ds1 was hugely popular with him and all his friends. It was also popular with dd and ds2 and their friends. I don't think we ever had a toy buggy. If we did, it wasn't popular as I don't remember it.

Men also become parents and cook food. There’s nothing male or female about dolls or play kitchens as gifts. The children are playing at being adults, that’s it.

Why are you telling people that using the phrase 'toxic masculinity' is damaging when you dont even know what the phrase means? Do you tell others what to do on topics you dont even know the basics about often?

Oh yes, revel in buying him a play kitchen and a push chair as he gets older.

I don’t think you understand what toxic masculinity means.

It’s not the same as masculinity or as being a man.

Mine wore some pink hand me downs from DD. I didn’t buy massed of pink for dd as it’s not a favourite colour of mine (and the pink they were selling back in 2008 wasn’t a nice shade like they sell now) but what I had that was useful I also put on him.

DD was a winter baby and I actually bought quite a bit of stuff for her from the boys’ section as they had warmer stuff!

Disliking toxic masculinity is not the same as thinking there is somethting wrong with being a boy.