Is it wrong to dress baby in pink /blue based on their gender?

[gratefulmamatobe]

I have a little girl due soon and I have bought everything in pink. Clothes, nursery decor, teddies etc.

A week ago, a friend commented saying I should be more gender neutral...

Keen to know thoughts on this?

(Obviously as she grows up, I will greatly encourage her to find the style/ colours that she loves)

It's not "wrong" but I think it's bit strange. Are all the clothes in your wardrobe just one colour?

I wouldn’t have said anything if I was your friend. But I probably would have secretly thought buying all pink for your girl baby was a bit regressive (and boring!) Not ‘wrong’ though.

As long as you don’t have any other old fashioned ideas about what’s for girls and what’s for boys then it’s not a big deal though.

Oh for fuck sake. Sounds like you've been brainwashed tbh.

do you think women are just naturally drawn to pink then?

Oh for fuck sake.

Sounds like you've been brainwashed tbh.

Do you think women are biologically hardwired to like pink?

I think it's a bit boring for everything to be pink, and is less socially acceptable to pass on to a boy.

In Victorian times, blue was for girls and pink for boys.

You do you (but I'd silently question the lack of variety).

It did always seem a bit strange to me to insist that everything a baby is dressed in or owns is one single colour on the basis of what genitals they have. That being said when they are a young baby they won't know or care, it will just look a bit boring if there is no variety to their wardrobe, but boring is fine when you are a little baby. It may be worth branching out a bit as she gets closer to toddler age though, as reinforcing gender stereotypes can have unintended and undesirable consequences, particularly for girls.

Brilliant 🤣 I'm convinced my stocky bald DS must have been fathered by Ross Kemp so this imagery really tickled me!

This.

Really? My DD often needed a reminder to lift her dress out of the way until maybe around her fourth birthday, whereas in trousers or shorts obviously nothing like that was needed as they just got pulled down together with her knickers.

I can't recall a time I saw any adult female friend wearing pink. I have no pink in my wardrobe.

Yes, exactly jewishmum. So women are dressing their daughters in pink, why??

What happens when you get a boy who loves pink and glitter and you've made it clear it's for girls? You're the ones who are going to struggle with the child who thinks he's a girl, because you have told him that is what girls are

It's not people who are dressing their children in all the colours that end up with "theybies" as you said. It's the people who enforce rigid gender binaries who get trans toddlers

Exactly this.

Also, it depends on the types of clothes - pink cotton babygrows, lovely. Frilly dresses or tight waistbands, not so much. For a baby clothes need to be comfortable and temperature appropriate.

I have two young DDs and hate dresses, they get in the way and are completely impractical until they're reliably walking.

I mean, there's nothing "wrong" with it if you like pink.
For me personally, "everything in pink" sounds horrible😂I like some variety of colour.

I dressed my son in pink (and blue, and purple, and dinosaurs, etc.). Because I like it.

His sister wears all his hand me downs. When they're babies, they really can wear anything.

Nothing 'wrong' about it at all. It's down to choice. Or at least I fucking hope it is because the way this world is going makes me despair.

As for adult women not wearing it - I happen to love pink. I'd wear it all day long. Currently sat wearing two items of pink clothing right now. Maybe I've been brainwashed! Couldn't really give a flying fig. I saw it, I liked it, I bought it.

My daughter liked pink, but she didn't ONLY wear pink. I like feminine clothing, I like feminine clothing for little girls but equally, she had other items of clothing.

My son likes pink but he doesn't really have pink clothes because there are not many about - and yes, I could put him in girls' clothes but as he's not choosing to wear a dress and girls' t-shirts are cut and styled very differently, I won't. That's a choice HE should be able to make when he's older. If I do that, it's my choice being imposed on him.

This is total nonsense, sorry. Dressing your child (baby) in stereotypical clothing isn't the same as saying 'only girls wear pink/if you wear pink you are a girl'. It's just the parents taste.

Most people don't only buy pink. Some parents go a bit mad with it when they're having a baby girl.

It is those who insist on everything gender neutral and self discovery and neutral pronouns who plant the idea of trangenderism, first and fore most. And those who actually forbid non-stereotypical clothing to an extent also

Everything in pink wouldn't be to my taste, but in isolation I don't think it's a massive issue.

It is a bigger issue is if this is indicative of a stereotypical attitude towards gender roles more broadly i.e. you think girls can't get messy, should only play with dolls (not dinosaurs or cars for example), overemphasise the importance of being pretty, etc.

I just can’t imagine liking a colour so much I want a whole wardrobe of it, mind you, I do have a lot of black, but wouldn’t buy it for a child as it shows up the sick stains too much! Would you dress your baby in pink if it was a boy? If you like the colour then go for it, I think it would odd just to dress your baby in head to toe pink just because of her chromosomes though.

I am the opposite. My baby girl is due soon and I have bought nothing pink, nor will I. If she chooses pink stuff later, fine but it really is not my thing. Everyone is different and that makes life interesting. I don't think I am more correct in the way I am choosing to go than you are, we just are making different choices. You do things the way you want to and stuff what people say.

I think MN has gone through the looking glass a bit when it comes to misogyny, gender stereotypes etc. What such posters want to see - a completely ‘gender less’ world where the only differentiation between men and women is their genitals or ability to get pregnant - is never going to happen.

That’s not to say little girls should be dressed entirely in pink and boys in blue, but there’s no denying that even the strongest critics of gender stereotypes on here are probably sat behind their phone/keyboard wearing ‘feminine’ clothes.

Women and men have different propensities in their behaviours, future careers, interests etc. That’s not the same as saying if you’re a woman who bucks the trends, you’re a man. Behaviours and fashion etc do not a woman make. But they tend to coincide. Whether that’s because of social factors, hormones, genetics, I don’t know. The only issue comes when a girl or woman who doesn’t want to confirm, isn’t allowed to do so or isn’t accepted to do so.

But I wish this hysteria over clothes and making out buying a baby girl a pink outfit makes her a future stripper. It’s madness.

Good luck with this! I was told I was having an average sized girl, bought some cute little dresses etc and ended with a large boy.

It's really not. And the whistle blowers at the Tavistock clinic have said as much. Parents with rigid ideas of gender or fear their kid will be gay because he is likes pink are the problem.

Good luck with this! I was told I was having an average sized girl, bought some cute little dresses etc and ended with a large boy.

I was thinking this.

Also that you'll probably be gifted a lot of outfits that don't fit the all pink aesthetic, but will come in really handy when you're on your 3rd outfit change of the day.

That and my baby pretty much lives in baby grows and vests at home.