If you haven’t heard about the ‘Gender Neutral’ movement yet, (maybe you’re living under a rock – *kidding*), there is a new crusade currently happening around gender neutral clothing!
I’m about to have a little rant here. You are forewarned! This post is heavily laden with sarcasm, my opinions and lots of eye rolling and tutting!
What is that?
Well some people have an issue with ‘all’ girls clothing being pink or purple, and ‘all’ boys clothing being blue or green. It spills over into the toys too, but my rant is specifically about the clothing! And if you could see my face now I’d be rolling my eyes so far back in my head they may commit me!
I think, or at least I hope this whole movement started with the best intentions of providing more choice for kids so that they aren’t ‘pre-programmed’ to like pink or blue – cos you know, kids are robots who do exactly what we tell them to do all the time right? NOT!
So to combat this ‘pre-programming’ they decided to make beige, grey and white t-shirts, shorts and dresses, yes dresses!!! that were for both girls and boys.
Can you tell what it is yet – my opinion that is?
I’m A Girl Mom
I’m going to thank God again right now that I don’t have a boy, not because I wouldn’t love him, of course I would, but at least I don’t have to give my opinion on boys walking around in beige dresses.
They then went a step further and created gender neutral zones in clothing stores so that you could blindfold your child walking through the pre-programmed section of the clothing store where all the pink and blue is, and then at the appropriate time, reveal to them the beige clothing section where they will then be allowed to choose ‘whatever they want’ to wear, right? Can you see the irony in this? Can you?
Background
Here’s my problem with this right. My step-sister and I are the same age. We grew up together from the age of four years old. We are now thirty-six years old! She was the definition of a ‘tom-boy’ – not that anyone would dare label a child such a name now! You’d have the PC Police tearing strips off you if you did! Anyway, you know the most shocking thing about all this? She grew up, got married to a man, (No, she didn’t turn into a lesbian *more eye rolling*) and she now has three little girls of her own!!!
I, on the other hand, wore dresses, liked pretty things and girly styles etc. I also married a man, and I also had two little girls! *Gasp*.
Shocking!!
No, her parents did not force her to wear dresses if she didn’t want to. She was allowed to choose what she wanted to wear – even to shop in the ‘boy’s section’- MADNESS! And so was I! Unf*ckingbelieveable!
The issue that I am struggling with right now is that I feel the tide is turning, the PC Bullsh*t seems to be overtaking sensibility, and more and more people who allow their daughters to wear pretty pink feminine clothing and dresses are being looked down upon because of this belief that we must not pre-program our kids!! I mean for goodness sake!!! *More eye rolling*
My Reality
For the record, my two daughters are as different as night and day. They are 23 months apart, they are growing up in the same house and yet my eldest would wear a pair of blue shorts and a green vest t-shirt every day for the rest of her life if she could, whereas my youngest would wear a pink frilly sequined dress with necklaces and rings and carry her handbag with her every day of her life if she could.
So I ask those people who are ‘looking down their proverbial noses’ at ME for allowing MY daughter to embrace HER femininity, should I NOT allow her to wear her pretty things?
Would that make YOU feel better?
Surely if I were to make her feel bad for wanting to be pretty, that would be as emotionally manipulative and damaging to her, as that of the poor child whose parents won’t allow him to wear a dress? Or maybe he can only wear it if it’s beige, but not if it’s blue because surely then he’d be pre-programmed to like blue and that’s … wrong?
Reality Check
Everyone just needs to get off their high horse and gain a little bit of perspective! *tut*
Can’t we all just allow our kids to choose what they want instead of making the whole world grey and beige? I’m quite sure that allowing our kids to have more options as to what they wear and what colour those clothes are, will surely have no affect on them. Whereas forcing pre-programming on them has!
Surely whatever gender you are, the world should allow you to choose your own path, and we should all be neutral about that?
Just because someone is surrounded by pink, glitter and sequins, doesn’t mean they will choose that for themselves. They won’t. Trust me!
NEWSFLASH: Kids do actually have minds of their own!
That is all I have to say on this gender neutral matter for now!
I’m not going to lie, what annoys me A LOT is the lack of black clothing for kids in general. I like black. We are quite alternative and I don’t want to dress my child in everything spiderman (he doesn’t even know who that is) and I find the minions really ugly (unlike the rest of the world that is obsessed with these bizarre creatures).
I do think being PC is a good thing in a world where people who are different are made fun of, I also think there’s more to the world than pink and blue. I don’t however think little girls shouldn’t be allowed to do all things pink if that’s what they wish, or not. I was ALL about pink and barbies and I was also a HUGE tree climbing, horse and bike riding farm girl. I now love black and pink is cool as hell but as my blog is literally called the Tyranny of Pink, I get why pink can be suffocating. Is it too much to ask for a black clothing section for toddlers though??? :P
Anything but beige! Please? Lol
I just think kids should be allowed to choose. I also don’t want them to be told that pink is bad, or being feminine is not strong, or to never be allowed to be “pretty” because they might offend somebody.
Let them define their own version or beautiful – as said by my favorite pop star – Pink! ?
Lol, oh I love that (and her) and YES – let them bloody well choose and we will all be fine. And I agree. #BeigeMustFall
??? Now that’s a movement I can get behind #beigemustfall
Oh I sooo agree! Can’t we just all calm down please! Let children choose whatever they want to wear/play with. I was v v anti gun play as a teacher before children. Then I had a son….who made a gun out of anything he could find!
My daughter liked green growing up (she’s now 17) but also a bit of pink sparkle (who doesn’t?). Choice people. Choice.
Thank you! It’s basically a case of common sense and balance! Lol ?
Love the “before I became a mom” moment.
Love love love this!
Thank you
My son is only 2 so right now I choose all of his clothing for him, but once he is old enough to start picking it out himself, I will let him choose whatever he wants to wear. I’m all for self expression and if he wants to wear pink, he can wear pink. I don’t think we necessarily need to have gender neutral specific colours, but I think we need to have all colours of clothing that don’t all have sparkles or flowers or trucks on them. Just a plain shirt or sweatshirt in whatever colour the kid wants. I won’t ever buy beige because beige is hideous as clothing. But when a mom wants to go and buy her two year old boy a pink shirt for anti-bullying day and the only options are shirts with sparkling hearts on them, that’s when I wish for more “neutrality” with clothing. I’m a mom who doesn’t buy the super hero, disney, cartoon laden clothing because that’s just not my thing, but I am a mom who wants to raise my son wearing all sorts of nice colours. And pink happens to look damn good on him! I think we live in a world that is becoming, in some ways, far too cautious about protecting everyone and everything. Everyone is afraid to offend. But my opinion is, if a man or teenage boy feels that they are more comfortable dressed more feminine, then they should be allowed to. That they shouldn’t have to feel that society is telling them that they have to wear gender neutral clothing. It is easier for a mother of daughters to accept that her daughter wants to wear “boy” clothing, but if a boy wants to wear “girl” clothing, everyone gets opinionated or upset by it. Why is that? We encourage our children to be strong, independent, speak their mind, accepting and loving….but the moment it comes to clothing that doesn’t conform to what society says their gender should wear, suddenly acceptance is blown out the window.
an interesting blog, which is actually written by a mother who wrote a book too is “Raising My Rainbow”. She is raising a gender non-conforming child. I know there are lots of opinions out there about the new “trend” of gender non-conforming children so her writing is really quite interesting.
I agree that they took it a little too far with removing even the pink and blue section of the toy store. As a child growing up, there was so no such thing as gender neutral. My best friend growing up was a boy, we played with power rangers. My mom didn’t care. It just sucks that my child doesn’t get to have that like experience I did as a child. I understand why because some children are trans but even then if a little boy rather be a girl, then pink would be something she would love anyways.
Exactly. Well said – it’s all just gone too far. ?
Hey lovely.
I can see where you are coming from. My objection isn’t really about the colours (and quite a few parents that I’ve spoken to agree), it’s that you shouldn’t have to shop in the boys section to find clothes with inspiring or cool slogans for little girls. It’s quite overwhelming here in the UK if you go into any big brand store, including the big supermarket chains that sell affordable but good quality clothes, the difference between the messages is horrificly sexist.
For example:
Girls Section has slogans like:
– I’m a beautiful princess
– I love unicorns
– Pretty little me
– Little girl, big smiles
– I love me
Boys Section has slogans like:
– I’m the king of the castle
– little boy, big ideas
– be a hero
– little genius
– future Einstein
– bring on the adventure
That and the fact that girls can like dragons, robots, molecules and cool things like that too! Girls aren’t just into unicorns, ponies, kittens etc. Where’s the “I’m the queen of the castle” or “Little genius” clothes for girls.
I can’t even tell you how chuffed I was when I found a pink sleepsuit with robots and flowers on it! MORE OF THAT PLEASE.
P.S. I have no objection to girls wearing pretty pink clothes with slogans about being beautiful and pretty… They just shouldn’t be the only option.
Agreed xx
I get it. I had just had a bad day the day before my rant where a mom basically shamed me and my girls implying that they will only ever be ‘princesses’ because they like pink and it’s my fault for only exposing them to that. The reality is my girls are extremely clever (I’m not just saying that cos I’m their mom) and they still like pink.
We should just let them choose …
Hope you are well!! Xx ?
[…] at No. 5 we have the image I created for my blog post entitled Has The Gender Neutral Movement Gone Too Far? This post was a bit of a rant. I felt like I had been mommy shamed after my post about 25 Things […]
“cos you know, kids are robots who do exactly what we tell them to do all the time right? NOT!”
Ahahahaha yes it’s to true! I love that I can hear the sarcasm in your voice!
Personally, I like beige in some instances, like the beige skirts of the 50s and 60s. But I do get that the whole issue is that the clothes are beige because they are perceived as gender neutral. For that reason, I would hesitate to dress my child that way (and I would never put a boy in a skirt/dress), but for myself, I enjoy wearing beige sometimes!
[…] a hugely popular brand, not just for boys, but for girls too. If that doesn’t blow the ‘gender neutral’ argument out the water, I don’t know what will. The point being that girls can like boys […]