We recall going through a brief pink phase as a kid, but we couldn't say we were as fanatical about the color as the girls who are documented in JeongMee Yoon's "The Pink & Blue Project." The Korean artist's ongoing photographic series explores the links between cultural preferences, gender socialization, and identity through the bedrooms and belongings of various little boys and girls.
The "Pink & Blue Project" overwhelmingly reminds us of how socially ingrained the two colors are with set genders. Looking at Yoon's photos makes us want to send something blue to our friend and family's little daughters and something pink to their sons. But whether or not Yoon's project evokes such feelings in you, if nothing else, the photographs are so well staged and color coordinated that they are mesmerizing to the eyes.
Find out more about JeongMee Yoon here.
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I remember being that age and despising pink so much.....and wondered why everything came in that color. Pink and I have only recently made up.
my daughter LOVES pink! this is so true.
I would have commited murder to have room like that when I was those girls' ages.
This is an amazingly great photo series. There's a book of all the photos, available from Photoeye. (photoeye.com)
As the father of a 2 year old girl who has encouraged orange, green and even (gasp) brown, I realize now that when it comes to young girls, you sometimes gotta' just let them get their pink on.
Incredibly cute kids!
My wife and I are expecting twins in January - a boy and a girl - and have been really surprised by the amount of gender specificity in all the baby stuff. Partly because iwe're having one of each and partly because that's just how we are we went with green and white for the nursery.
We went through all the stuff we got (and sincerely appreciated) to pull out "Dad's Li'l Slugger" and "Pretty Princess" items in favor of more simple and neutral designs.
If the kids decide they like pink and blue later on, well, that's cool. I just don't want them to be forced into being branded right from the get go.
Oh
My
God
Those children have an insane amount of plastic future landfill...
...which will last well past their grandchildren are dead.
When I see day care groups in the park, inevitably all the girls are wearing pink and purple, all the boys blue, red and black. It's really very weird.
I remember liking girly stuff...I still have fond memories of mutilating my Barbies...
Way to miss the post of the post, bepsf.
I agree with Aito.
I wouldn't want to push it on my kid. And I have long held that if I ever have a girl - she's not wearing pink until she picks it out herself.
Of course, for that I'm sure my little girl will gravitate toward pink just to chap my hide.
I've never seen the need to assign gender roles upon birth. Yes it's nice.. you're a boy - you're a girl. I just wouldn't want to limit them.
That said, my cousin has three kids - all girls. Her husband once said, "You know you're outnumbered when the biggest load of laundry is pinks."
In this years' Christmas card, they also pointed out that even the cat is female!
I had a daughter 8 months ago and I swore I would not fall into the pink trap.
8 months later I'll tell you the problem with that plan.
A- If you don't plan to dress a baby girl in pink, you should plan to spend the better part of her infancy in search of non-pink, non-ugly girl baby clothes. Because they are few and far between.
B- Plan to spend the other part of her infancy responding "a girl" when every stranger in line at the grocery store stares quizically and asks what she is. That is more annoying and tedious than accepting the pink thing and going about your day. Or, even worse, then reassuring them "oh, it's ok" when they ask how old "he" is.
I've sold out to the pink. Where possible, I lean towards fuchsia. Otherwise, I had no choice. Life's too short. And, well, she looks cute in pink.
Same first thought as bepsf: wow, a toddler does not need that many possessions. Especially brightly colored plastic ones.
*winces* I was never a fan of pink. I don't think I wore it at all past the age of three or so - I've only just started liking it (and only fairly bold, bright pinks, none of that pastel girly crap!), and I'm twenty-two now!
Bright, rich pinks = good. Pastel, insipid pinks = double-plus ungood!
to all those that really oppose gender specific clothing...
beware, if you are caught in conversation with someone say in line at the market and they refer to your beautiful daughter as "he"....Correct them! Before you know it they will be asking "his" name...I do hate to lie but after a long wait in line together it feels wrong somehow to say her name is Willa so sometimes it's William.
Actually, the colour gender specificity is culturally ingrained. For hundreds of years up until WW1, pink was considered a little boys colour and primrose blue a girl colour. It was originally thought that the fleshy-ness of pink was more robust for little boys.
And you can see a shift in meaning for the colour pink even over the last 30 some odd years. Football teams during the 70's painted opposing locker rooms pink believing it sapped teams of the winning edge. But now pink has been reclaimed as a power colour by the breast cancer movement. Very few people think of pink as 'wimpy' in that context.
I do too much research on colour meaning for school... My brain is full of this kind of stuff.
I love pink, but I got sick of it after sorting through all of the baby clothes I received (new and hand-me-downs) for my baby girl. For the longest time I went out of my way to put her in reds, greens, and blues. Now she's a toddler and she wants to wear pink. I've neither encouraged nor discouraged it, but she also insists on wearing bows in her hair every day and she likes to drape pretty fabrics and jewelry around herself. She's going through a girly-girl phase, which is cute, but I'm happy that she still likes to play with cars and blocks, too.
I like the gender neutral colors - yellow, green, and purple. If I ever decide to have kids, I will definately embrace one of those colors for nursery and such.
It's so difficult finding clothes for little girls that aren't pink. While shopping for my newborn niece this holiday season I had a hell of a time finding cute dresses and such that weren't pink. Luckily I stumbled across lots of white, navy, and yellow dresses (some of my favorite colors), but everything for baby girls is predominantly pink :/
Go with art supplies, K T G. Crayons, paint, and paper are inherently gender neutral.
"Way to miss the post of the post, bepsf."
No - I saw the point and chose to look past it.
Like Cheryl said: No kid needs this much plastic crap.
KTG - You could also consider items that are more educational:
Last year, I bought my nephew (who was 6 at the time) an illuminated globe so he could get some idea of where his grandparents and I go when we travel.
It breaks my heart that my 3 year old son loves princesses & pink but if I buy him anything remotely "girly" my husband and the neighbors freak....we have only come so far, folks. And it's sad and pathetic. Help me decide to buy my son the Disney Belle princess dress he so desperately wants!!
go for it btfabt! break the rules! we have enough of them already... it's better to raise confident little boy, than scared for being oneself guy....
When I was a kid we didn't have that division, and I was wearing a lot of hand-me-downs, some of them from my brother or other kids of my mom's friends... no one really paid much attention to it. the line was by skirt/pants, that's all ;-) I was a tomboy and I always loved blue, so I was naturally inclined into wanting that... Now, for whatever reason, I do want some pink once in a while ;-) but mostly dark, purplish kind of pink. But still.. I am surprising myself.
But indeed it's so hard to find anything in other colors! I was looking for my friend's son, and it was hard... I finally found some cream-brown things.
I like mixing colors for kids, I want girls in blue, pink, red - same for boys! so many possibilities, why narrow it down so much?
Kelaine - in the course of your research, did you notice that even the earliest Disney heroines (Cinderella, Alice, Wendy, etc.) wore blue? Even "Sleeping Beauty" princess Aurora's color-changing dress had more screen time in blue than pink.
I personally had a sky-blue room and favored purple when I was a little girl. I didn't at all care for pink until recently...and tend toward shocking pink.
can't comment on the psychological factor of gender socialization, but wow, these kids are lucky...and when they grow out of these toys...at least a few generations of less fortunate kids will get to enjoy them...the great thing about some of these modern materials...they last forever (and contribute in a socially positive way)...aren't there kids toys from the 40s-50s that still circulate around/are still sought after as home decors?
I hadn't considered the supermarket-line gender-identification scenario which is a legitimate unanticipated headache.
Not that dogs are kids but we have a bulldog who everyone refers to as a boy even after being corrected because all bulldogs are masculine.
I am sure that now before the babies come it is much easier for us to be thoughtful and "political" about gender identity, but in a couple months we will just grab whatever is closest and cleanest to put on them, be it white, green, pink, blue or orange with brown stains.