Oh yes…

Cos you aren’t a REAL WOMAN unless a man buys you this giant glittery thing and then trots you around places wearing it like some sort of portable ornament and wealth-display device.

I’m sorry. I just had a moment.

FIELD TRIP.

Not me, but an interesting idea. The most famous example of a historical boy wearing blue would have to be this: http://www.britsattheirbest.com/cr_gainsborough_blue_boy.jpg
while, around the same time, Thomas Lawrence did this painting of a twelve-year-old girl known to friends and family as ‘Pinkie’: http://www.oceansbridge.com/paintings/artists/special/Thomas-Lawrence-Pinkie.jpg
(Incidentally, there’s an exhibition on Thomas Lawrence at the National Portrait Gallery, which I am determined to see at some point. Almost certainly worth a look if you’re interested in this sort of society-portrait type stuff).

Was it on one of Hodge’s posts I read that little girls used to wear blue because it was thought ‘calming’ whereas little boys wore pink as it was like red and therefore more masculine? Just proves how weird it all is.

YES. Gendered gift recommendations often seem to be the suckiest, token/shallow yet very expensive tat. Probably the stuff that’s impossible to convince people to buy for themselves.

Can’t tell if it’s just the catagory headings, or if you really do have both a husband and a girlfriend. In my head that’s a really happy image.

I hadn’t read those stories about the girl getting bullied for liking “boy” things, but all of those links are very enlightening about how this type of targeted marketing to young kids is damaging and leads to bullying and repression. Thanks for linking me to them.

I’ve heard blue is planning some sort of legal challenge. In a statement today, blue said:

“I come in all sorts of feminine-friendly shades, including baby blue, royal blue and violet. So why is pink regarded as the supreme female colour? It’s just a shade of red really.”

There are also campaigns stirring for baby blue to be renamed “bink”.

http://nerdyapplebottom.com/2010/11/02/my-son-is-gay/

http://myprincessboy.com/index.asp

These are both great links on boys who like ‘girl’ stuff.

And funny you should mention the girl who likes Star Wars…

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/12/09/katie.starwars.geek/index.html
http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/portrait_of_an_adoption/2010/11/anti-bullying-starts-in-first-grade.html