Do you thik boys/girls instinctively like the colours blue/pink?

[Consuelaa]

Or is it just society that drums that into them?

I was wondering when recently my 2 year old nephew was drinking out of a pink cup. He didn't seem to care at all what colour the cup was but my sister/his mother came up and was all like "no no he can't drink out of a pink cup" and changed his cup.

Before that happened he would have seen pink in a neutral light? But after that he now sees pink as a colour not to associate with?

All colours can be equally bright though (.i.e. reflecting the same amount of light) I.e. bright grey, bright khaki, bright beige etc... But there is something particularly interesting about pinks and reds - they 'pop' - I think this is an instinctive/in built human thing. It's not something inherent in the wavelength of the colour.

Don't think it is hugely more in boys or girls - that seems like social influence as they get older and learn about 'acceptable' colours.

DS was never terribly attracted to bright colours. Always pink (though I think probably true that any red tone was attractive to him)

Of course it's not instinctive. I agree that all children like pink but boys are discouraged from doing so whilst girls are the opposite. Both my ds's went straight for a pink sparkly pair of shoes when buying their first pair. Both of them say red is their favourite colour.

I remember being in Toys R Us one day and seeing a little girl trying out a scooter. Her mum took it off her and,saying"you need the girls' one", handed her a pink version. What is the point???

May I refer you to www.pinkstinks.co.uk/ DD hated pink. And was I delighted?

its totally conditioned

DSs nursery staff says that all small children fight over the bright pink toys, but once they start understanding a bit more they pick up the boy/girl thing but its NOT instinctive

when I was a wee girl my fav colours were blue and purple, and everyone had different favourite colours, not its that you are assigned a main colour based on your sex!

I've had someone take pink toys out of my small toddlers hands and go off to find him something blue - what is WRONG with these adults???

You all confirmed what I thought.

all that pressure on them to like pink, girls do. And then people say it's "natural" that they do.

Yep. Isn't this some kind of logical fallacy?

It is a bug bear of mine! If an adult took a pink toy/ cup out of my son's hands I would give a real tongue lashing. DD1 was obsessed by pink and is now coming out the other end and I hated it. At home, we mix the plates and cups up to make sure they are not along current gender specific lines.

It's the same when, if my children are hurt and someone tells my son to 'man up' or to 'big, brave boy' but then gives comfort to my DDs. It really irritates me.

there is a local baby ballet school which is obv not doing well because they're out on the street all the time handing out leaflets.. maybe if they.. oh I dunno.. DOUBLED their target market by including boys they might do better???? just an idea who will only hand a leaflet to friends I'm out with who have little girls with them, never to me and DS - he is USELESS at little kickers (prances around like a sugar plum fairy) but LOVES dance and drama!

I REALLY hate them, they totally ignore him and coo over how "pretty" my friends little girls are while chatting to THEM about dance

Yes I know you'll say you would all give em a tongue lashing, but TBH they make me SO STABBY that I am too busy holding back the incredible hulk inside me to speak!

but the girls just naturally choose pink and ballet and the boys all naturally love blue and football right?

No, I don't think so (answering OP's question as I dived into this one). DD is just over 18 months and will opt for blue one day, green the next, black another, pink another...
I find it frustrating that sometimes there is no choice other than between pink and blue with regard to toys/clothes.

Lacking I do share your frustration but it's also possible they've approached parents of boys in the past and got the "no he's a BOY!!" response...

no I'm sorry but that doesn't excuse looking at two toddlers stood on front of you and saying "oh look at the little girl, isn't she pretty/cute" and completely ignoring the little boy beside her

and only SPEAKING to me to ask if I'm carrying a girl if they notice I'm pregnant

and if some idiots did say "no he's a boy" does that give you a licence to join em? although I do not get the impression that that is what happened with these women, I think they only targetted girls from the start!

Ok they are idiots!

I really wanna say something clever like "yes I'm having a boy, we're thinking of calling him Mikhail Baryshnikov Smith actually" and walking away but I'm never level headed enough when I see them to do anything good like that!

In olden times pink was for boys (it was a shade of red and supposedely more manly) and blue was supposedely a feminine colour for girls.

Ive asked family to try and refrain from buying pink for my little one.

DD, 3, likes pink as much as any other colour, but her favourite colour is yellow. MIL is firmly in the camp of boys like X, girls like Y so always buys her pink things . Since DS was born in April she keeps passing on her youngest DS' toys which I mostly trucks, trains and cars. DD loves these, but they are "for DS". MIL has been conditioned that boys and girls are differently by nature, but cannot see that if you give kids the freedom of choice they will play with most anything regardless of gender.

IMO its societal pressure all the way. I don't mind DD playing with pink toys, but I resent the division of "boys" and "girls" toys. Sometimes its segregating the princess toys from the knight toys, sometimes its selling a blue bucket and spade to boys, but a pink set to girls and sometimes its doctors outfits for boys and nurses outfits for girls. I know there are a lot of people who claim that some of us "read too much into it", but I think its shocking.

DD doesn't like pink and she doesn't like blue, she likes orange and yellow.
Can I get her clothes in these colours?
No.

she also doesn't want to be a princess or a pirate so I assume she has no gender - at least as defined by marketting people.

Blue used to be the colour for girls as it was associated with the Virgin Mary - note pictures of her always in blue and hence Alice in Wonderland being dressed in an "Alice blue gown".

I hate the limiting of choice for no reason, I cannot see how there can be a girls scooter and a boys scooter - is there an inherent gender based diffrence between scootering???????

DD wasn't remotely interested in pink until she started nursery & all the girls were fighting for the pink cup.

Even then I think it was more of an "I should like pink". Her favourite colour's really always been blue.

I agree that most little children like pink (and glitter & sparkles) until 50% of them are told that they shouldn't.

No of course not.

And your sister is ridiculous.

Ha. I was just going to post the exact words 'no of course not' samandi.

WilfSell - great minds :-) Although you don't exactly have to have a great mind to realise that the hoo ha about blue for boys and pink for girls isn't innate.

No they don't. How could they instinctively prefer a colour according to their gender? I can guarantee that if green was "for boys" and orange was "for girls", kids would eventually gravitate towards those colours instead, if the same amount of conditioning were to take place.

Kids aren't even born with an innate knowledge of what is disgusting" - they learn to avoid "grossness" by copying adults. The same goes for colours.

Saw it on telly with that Dr Robert Winston dude. So it must be true