What a cute little boy!

2006
09.07

Okay, so my #1 pet peeve today is people thinking Rose is a boy any time she is not dressed entirely in pink clothes.  Now, I don't have anything AGAINST boys, but this child is obviously a girl.  This is irritating for the following reasons:

1.  It sincerely bothers Dillon, and often when he corrects these people who say this, and these types of people (cashiers, servers, people at the library, etc.) don't actually listen to him.  So then he looks at me, upset, and I have to re-correct the people.  

2.  Rose won't leave the house without her pink converse all-stars.  Don't get me wrong, this doesn't totally make her a girl, I tried to buy a pair of these for Dillon but Chuck wouldn't let me.   But even if she's wearing a purple or blue shirt (which I know can be confusing to those with need-to-make-a-gender-assignment issues) she still has PINK SHOES!

3.  It's not like her clothes are gender-neutral. Almost all of them came as hand-me-downs from her cousin Monica, who is a beautiful kid but totally wonderfully girlie.  I am a pretty progressive mom, but I probably wouldn't send Dillon to the playground in boot-cut jeans with pink butterflies embroidered up the leg.  Or in purple capri-pants with "Old Navy" on the butt.  

4.  Not all people with short hair are men.  Or boys.

5.  Her hair isn't even all that short anymore, it's kind of a cute pixie-cut thing!

6.  Most of the time Rose wants to dress entirely in pink, but when I can convince her otherwise, I don't want to have to stop every stranger from calling her a boy.  I rethink fighting her into a green shirt (with pink flowers on it) because I know I'll be spending my day correcting people (at least, I will if Dillon is with me, otherwise I just grin and bear it).

7.  I just wonder if there isn't some white-people ignorance under this, and that bugs me.  A sort of "all those people look the same" thing.  Because only white people have made this mistake.   Maybe white girls with close-cropped hair face the same thing, but I wonder.  

Anyway, that's my rant for the day! Thanks for reading!

One Response to “What a cute little boy!”

  1. mcollins says:

    Thanks to Patti O. for this link about why pink is associated with femininity. Turns out it was the Nazis! Check it out…

    http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=238733

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