Seeing as I was the first and only girl in my family and the first born grand daughter on both sides on my family I had a lot of pink when I was little and I mean A LOT. Admittedly, in those early years it was my favorite color, but how could it not be, everything I owned and everything anyone gave me was pink. I soon became so sick of the color that it was relegated to my most hated color, not to mention I was a tom boy and pink was just way to girly girl for me. Since that experience I have always been drawn to non-conventional girl clothing. Whenever I find out a friend is having a baby girl I always opt for baby girl outfits that are blue, brown, green, etc. but never pink and rarely purple. Just because I hate the notion of a certain set of colors being girl colors or boy colors.
When I found out I was having a boy I was totally disappointed at the lack of variety in color when it comes to baby boy clothes. Everything was red, navy, baby blue, burnt orange, brown olive green or grey. Where were all the vibrate colors such as turquoise, sunny yellow, lime green, purple and dare I say it…pink? Well they were all over on the baby girl side of the store and I found this to be really upsetting. Not to mention I didn’t want to put my son in clothing with trucks, motorcycles or skulls and bones on them, I don’t want to pigeon hole him like that. So I set out to find him something pink. Now admittedly, I don’t love the color but I felt strongly about my son growing up knowing that there is no such thing as “boy” colors and “girl” colors, but that there were only ‘colors.’
With the help of my mom and mother-in law we were able to find these two shirts (don’t mind the wrinkles). One fushia pink and the other lilac! It may be a small thing but it felt like a huge victory. We weren’t going to be constrained by societal gender stereotypes!! In any case it’s all so subjective anyway and totally subject to change, did you know that pink used to be considered a baby boy color and blue was designated for baby girls? True story. Not to mention both my husband and I look best in bright, vibrant colors, so there’s a strong chance those colors will suite our son too. And you know what? If he decides that pink isn’t his favorite color, then that’s totally his choice but he won’t ever get the message from Rafaan and I that pink is only for girls or that trucks and bland colors are only for boys.
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