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[quote=Anonymous]It's annoying but this quickly reverses course. Baby girls get inundated with pink, yes. And it seems like boys get a more normal variety of colors as babies.

But in a couple years, people get real weird about colors and gender preference with boys, and things open up for girls. My 4 yr old loves pink (she's in a serious pink phase right now, all driven by her!) but she's actually an outlier in her peer group. You see a group of 4 and 5 year old girls and it's a little rainbow -- plenty of pink and purple, but also LOTS of yellows and greens and blues and rainbows, some hipsters in black and gray, lots of silver and gold sparkles. Same with their backpacks and bikes and toys. Just a ton of variety. The message for girls right now is that the world is your oyster. You can love unicorns and trucks. You can take ballet and do soccer and go to a STEM camp. Etc. Girls can do anything.

And then you'll see the boys and it will make you a little sad. Even in my uber progressive, liberal, LGBTQ+ friendly neighborhood, the boys are almost universally in blue, black, red, gray, and other muted colors. Very little in the way of bright. Pink and purple are absolute no gos ("girl colors!") but even things like bright yellow and green, or something in multiple colors -- you just don't see it a lot. I don't have a boy so I don't know if this is driven by the kids, the parents (and if so which parents), or they are just soaking up cultural cues. But it's kind of sad, honestly. And I think this is one reason that you see boys with less interest in art, for instance, which sucks because art is an amazing outlet for kids who may not have the language skills or emotional regulation to express themselves in other ways.

So yeah, the pink baby stuff is silly, but this issue I think hurts boys way more. I'm relieved my kid can wear a pink tutu any day she wants, and also blue overalls, and feels comfortable doing so. I don't think boys are getting the message that's okay at all. And yes, it's misogyny (feminine=inferior and masculine=superior, so girls are encouraged to embrace stereotypical boy things but the reverse is not true) but it's a prime example of how misogyny and toxic masculinity hurts men and boys too.[/quote]

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