Gender stereotypes

Matt and I went out for lunch with Ivy last week and we had an interesting interaction that got me thinking. Ivy was in her high chair, smiling at an older couple next to us (as she always does) and the man said to me ‘what’s his name?’ This took me by surprise as she had a red bow on her head, but I said to him ‘oh, her name is Ivy.’ He then looked at me and said ‘oh, it’s a girl, I didn’t think so because she’s wearing blue.’ She had baby jeans on…

This got me thinking about how ingrained it is in our minds and society that girls wear pink and boys wear blue. As a teacher I’ve seen how damaging this can be - girls feeling they don’t fit in because they don’t like wearing pink and being called a ‘tomboy’ if they prefer blue. Boys being labelled ‘feminine’ or ‘camp’ because they want to wear pink. How do we stop this? 

I have also noticed since having a baby how gender specific toys can be. The girls ones are to do with babies, washing, cooking, cleaning. The boys are trucks, planes, dirt, blocks. Who are we to tell our children what they can and can’t play with based on their sex? I’m going to make a conscious effort to ensure I don’t do this with Ivy. To make sure she knows she can play with what she wants and wear what she wants as she gets older. Don’t get me wrong, I will still buy pink outfits, but I will also buy blue and every other colour under the sun!

Have you had any experiences with people making comments on your child’s appearance or sex?