Girls and pathological desire for PINK STUFF

[FlossieTCake]

(Sorry if this doesn't technically count as news - it was in the newspaper but a features section.)

The tyranny of pink, according to the Grauniad, is all because "pink sells".

Anyone else out there with daughters found this as annoying as I did?

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I love it! Dd1 hates it! Am now having dun dressing dd2 head to toe in pink.....

oh I read this...
dd is 2 and is not in thrall to pink yet
in fact I actively avoid it...though how much longer I'll get away with this I don't know

the writer made the point that it didn't used to be like this and I think she's right-I don't remembering wearing much pink when I was little...

Just read this article in the paper! I found it quite uncomfortable reading. In particular:

"The American Psychological Association," says Mikel Brown, "has a taskforce on the sexualisation of girls in the media, which connects pink and sexy with girls' depression, eating disorders and self-esteem issues."

My wee one (2) loves orange. Anything pink she has was a present from friends and family.

I didn't read the article Flossie but I limit 'girly' clothes and toys for my dd. I make sure we have lots of 'boyish' toys and that she isn't overly aware of gender.

Oh, and I think gender stereotyping and the sexualisation of children is news (ok I skimmed the article)

Ironically, my aversion to pink is mainly for aesthetic reasons. Having grown to love pink as a grown-up (hated it as a child, played mainly with boys and a few choruses of "ink pink you stink" very quickly batters any pink-loving tendencies out of you....), I have given birth to a red-head who just looks - well - WRONG in pink. Which made me so sad because after two boys I was quite looking forward to shopping for pink stuff .

Strangely, she doesn't seem so enthralled by pink stuff as other small girls I know. Given the choice, she'll plump for purple or blue any time. Although she still goes a bit doolally in the dolly aisle in ToysRUs.

I'm going through a 'aaargh' everything is pink stage at the moment and my DD is only 13m old!!
I had to get pink shoes as the shoe shop had nothing else.
I want to buy things like wellies and a few basic bits which are in colours that could be used by a boy if we had another baby but there is so little choice.
I am not anti pink, DD wears it and so do I, but that article rang very true with me.

Yama, completely with you on the limiting 'girly' toys. DD has two big brothers, the second of whom loved dollies and role-play, so I think (I hope!) we have a fairly healthy mix of toys (from the perspective of avoiding the gender stereotypes).

DD loves her soft toys and squishy dollies (none of those ones with the creepy plastic heads, thank you), but she also adores trains.This causes some conflict with DS2, who is not quite ready to relinquish them just yet.

And she wields a mean light saber too.

Oh, and when I took her shopping for wellies, she marched straight past the pink flowery glittery wellies and insisted on the blue camouflage pair.

I just would have liked to have seen a little more balance in the kids they spoke to - they only seemed to talk to the ones that had fully signed up to the everything-must-be-pink programme. Surely I can't be the only person with a daughter that isn't averse to it, but really could take it or leave it??

It wasn't like this when I was young. My favourite colour was blue and everyone had a different favourite colour. I do dress my preschool DDs in pink but that's partly because I buy a certain amount of second hand clothes or have things handed down and there is proportionatley more pink than other colours among that stuff. I like to combine green, purple and orange with the pink. I don't buy frilly or 'sexy' clothes for my DDs or anything with stupid slogans on. I always look in the boys' section of shops to see if there are any nice stripey tops or whatever for the DDs, but boys clothes are a bit dull really...
The most commercial thing I've ever bought was a t-shirt with Penelope Pitstop from the Wacky Races on it the other day, I just had to, it was a total nostalgia trip, back to the pre-predominance-of-pink days!

Lol at the light saber Flossie. My dd can kick the Henry ball (yes big blow up thing that came free with the hoover) the length of the lounge.

My Mum despairs that I am negative against dolls. Your dd is lucky to have two brothers. I think you are right - balance is key.

I was completely against the whole pink thing until I took dd to baby club and realised that pink socks were a good way of avoiding awkward conversations where no one actually wants to say "What is it?". Heard a theory that the reason we dress girls in pink and boys in blue stems from....originally men were associated with Red (Mars, war, fire etc) and Women with blue (especially Mary mother of Jesus) and that kids got a watered down, pastel version of it. This was swopped round in India (to protect the boys from kidnapping and Allahs wrath) and that we in Britain adopted the tradition while being 'the Raj'.

I think I was mostly dressed in orange and brown when I was little
with a bit of tartan thrown in for fun
it was the seventies y'know

It does seem to be incredibly hard to buy non-pink clothing. H&M and Boots often have a few things in colours other than pink, but the supermarkets are awash with the stuff, and all that particularly shocking Barbie colour that makes your eyes hurt too.

Judging from our photo albums I wore mainly brown, yellow and white when I was little.

DD loves football too. I have had to stop taking her with me when I drop DS1 off at his football training on a Saturday as she throws a massive tantrum when I try to remove her from the pitch in order to go home and avoid standing shivering on the touchline for an hour and a half.

Hmm. Maybe it is just me....

yes H&M are good for non-pink
and babygap (but expensive)
next sometimes
have even found non-pink in mothercare occasionally-tis rare though

Yeah, I was a 70's kid too. Lots of brown, shades of blue and red. Me and my bowl cut looked good.

I caught the tail-end of seventies fashion, I think. Lots of velour dungarees and mini-kilts (or was that just San Francisco?)

Flossie, that has reminded me. When my dd was about 20 months old she ran the length of a pitch (well area in the park) of nine year old boys with their spare ball. I was so proud.

Dd can also take or leave pink. She is 5. I never go out of my way to buy her pink clothes, but neither do I actively avoid it (even though when I had her I swore that nothing pink would ever cross our threshold)

But dd has a big brother, so is all clued up in matters relating to tree-climbing, camouflage and cars

Dungaree were 'in' here too but I think mini-kilts would be too cruel here in Scotland.

I remember one photo of my brothers and I in matching tracksuits - blue, green and red.

Actually come to think of it I was always red, my big brother green and my wee brother blue. I think that's why I supported Aberdeen Football team as a small child. I'd certainly never been there.

My dd (3) is not into pink particularly and her very favourite colour is blue. (I'm very proud that dd insisted I buy her a pair of green camoflage trousers the last time we were shopping).

I loathe the pink for girls thing, it is all down to gender stereotyping which I find so annoying. DD was given a hoover for Christmas fgs - that found a new home pretty quickly.

I find Next, Marks, Ebay are good for non-pink clothes.

I did find it quite shocking that the article referred to t-shirts that said "Porn Star" on them - the implication being that these were being sold for small children, let alone pre-teens/teenagers.

I find all those slutty/knowing t-shirt slogans frankly repulsive. Does this make me very reactionary and conservative?

BTW, completely agree that girls are 'groomed' to want to wear pink, play with dolls etc.