And so we reach the vexed matter of children's fashion. The more time I spend going round kids clothes shops with Little G - and I spend a lot of time, as it tires her out, the more I observe how little has changed on the colour palate front.
When You must be mad was born I made a lot of her clothes as I despaired of the 'girls wear pink' gender agenda choices available in Mothercare, which was about all we had at that time. Thus from birth she was dressed in strong colours like the pair of navy velvet dungarees, or the rainbow Fairisle jumpers and succession of patchwork jackets.
Fast forward 32 years, and trudging through Equality, Feminism, RadFems and any other Fems you care to mention, girls' clothes are still being mainly produced in pastel colours with bows and frills and cutesy slogans about princesses and sparkly bits while boys' clothes are in 'robust' colours with trucks and dinosaurs and robots, so that as soon as you enter a store you can clearly spot whose outfits are located where.
This lamentable lack of progress was vividly brought home to me last week when Little G and I went into a small local pop up Danish clothes shop, whose bright window display of children's clothes drew us like two magnets. Once inside, I picked out a bright leaf-green T-shirt with farm animals and tractors on it only to be told by the young, so should know better, assistant: 'that's really meant for boys'.
I bought it. Of course.
To be continued... ...
When my daughter was a toddler she was dressed in her boy cousins' cast offs. She buys her daughter clothes of every hue through navy, green to some pink. Millie really suits navy but she loves pink and will always choose that colour herself!
ReplyDeleteCan you explain this to me..Little G loves pink also ...are we conditioned? Is it genetic?
DeleteI wish I knew.
DeleteI hated pink and I really think that in my childhood there was far less pink for girls. It really is ubiquitous now - or violet, which I also hate!
DeleteI couldn’t agree more, Carol. I’m so tired of 'blue for boys’ and always try and look for individual shops that aren’t afraid of straying from the traditional.
ReplyDelete. . . as I bought a dinosaur t-shirt for my 4 year-old GD, again from a bemused shop assistant!
ReplyDeleteThe only respite from the wretched pink - the long blue frock from Frozan - and sparkles and frills, so compensate for the lack of pink, presumably!
ReplyDelete*rolls eyes* what can we do?
Deletenot a lot, unfortunately. We are at the mercy of whatever is in the shops, unless you make your own clothes...but that is another story and the same problems there too...
Delete..which I used to do...but no longer have the time...
DeleteWhatever I tried to do, my daughter was totally pink, glittery and frilly until she turned 12 when she became black and moody. There was no in-between with her. Is it the TV or the shops or is it in their genes? Who knows.
ReplyDeleteIt is odd..Little G gravitates towards pink & sparkly, despite D deliberately choosing strong colours for her. I blame the nursery!
DeleteI also despaired of pink when my girls were small, so like you, I made most of their clothes. My younger daughter now loves pink because she says I denied her of it in childhood...haha. So glad you bought the tee with the tractor!
ReplyDeleteWhen my daughter was born, our hospital cubicle looked like someone had vomited pink blancmange all over the place. It wasn't me - it was all our friends and family. I guess after having two boys they thought I needed a change of tone. Now she is 13 and just like Rosalind's daughter, it's all black, studs and eyeliner!
ReplyDeleteI see scientists are now worried that too much playing with Barbies may be stopping girls from taking up science subjects....
DeleteBack in the days of my own children holding me hostage during their fledgling years, I was equally frustrated by the 'pink for girls blue for boys' rubbish and all the frilly, flouncy, ribboned trappings I was being press ganged into purchasing for my daughters, so I very often found myself wandering over to the boys department to access the more gritty, practical and fun stuff for them to wear. So yeah...good for you Hedges, I'm sure little G will love her new T shirt.......may the rebellion continue!!.....
ReplyDeleteI made a lot of my daughter's clothes when she was little so she wouldn't just be dressed in what I disdainfully referred to as "pink Princess" clothes. I dressed her in a rainbow of colors. She went off to primary school and was told by indoctrinated peers and their parents that she should wear pink, so she went through a pink "phase" between 5 and 7 where all she wanted to wear was pink (with the occasional purple accessory). I gritted my teeth, but let her choose her own clothes and fabric for the things I continued to make her (a memorable one was a Cinderella dress she wanted me to make out of pink fabric that had some kind of glittery chip woven into it - I went through about six sewing machine feet trying to put that dress together). Happily she outgrew the "pink phase" and went back to the rainbow after the age of 8.
ReplyDeleteNow she's a teen and all she wants to wear is black. Sigh.
There is definitely a strand running through the comments on the lines of: they go from pink to black ...eventually.... interesting. I await the outcome...
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