Practical in Pink

Hurrah for the anti-pink campaign. As it seems we live in a world where theonly way to get some common sense IN SPITE of advertisers and marketing people is to create campaigns against the things they do, they have my total support.

At the end of the day though, its all good and well talking about what toys we expose kids to, but the real decider is what they see around them... humans must be hardwired to know their sex faily early on and imitate accordingly most of the time. Most of the people we see driving cars and trains are men, most people pushing prams and cleaning are women. Y punto.

Apart from that I think we very subtly ascribe roles to them from early on... boys to be strong and active, girls to be more cautious as well as socially and emotionally responsive. Even the most "right on" parents do this, its totally subconcious. And of course not just parents but every single person that comes in contact with the baby and child... in the street, family, then teachers etc... "hola campeon", "hola princesa"...any wonder that by the time they are 4 most of them are gagging for a football strip or cindarella dress??

My last point is this though... I know I inwardly balk at girls with a baby and pram obsession, their little matching pink broom and mops... but I dont ridicule little boys with their elaborate train collections and garage full of scooters and bikes...it makes me realise that even I, a so called femenist and total supporter of raising your own kids and breastfeeding etc, probably still undervalue childcare and domestic work which is half the problem in the first place. Maybe the day that we see a girl, or boy, pushing a pram and we respect it as much as the train enthusiast or scooter racer, again girl or boy, next to them will we be on our way to equality.

So, fight pinkification we must, even if we do it wearing a touch of rose.

Refs: (http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2009/dec/12/pinkstinks-the-power-of-pink)(http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/blog/2011/may/09/pink-toys-girls-passive-princesses)