New on Babble: In The Pink?

Having a baby girl presents a set of parenting dilemmas that are different from having a boy For example, I ache over the idea that she’ll be immersed in “mean girl” culture in middle school. I am more grimly determined than ever to make sure she has a full array of reproductive health choices when she reaches adulthood. There’s a particular shade of pink popular among baby girl clothing designers that literally gives me migraines. Oh, and toymakers are pissing me off by reinventing classic toys in “girly” shades. What’s that about? I’m ranting on it over at Babble today.

I understand that there’s no way to totally avoid the genderizing of toys for babies and little kids. There are the Lego sets for girls and Disney Princess bikes alongside Spiderman ones. Stuffed animals and lovies come in pink and blue. It’s inescapable. But so we really need to go back and reinvent something as classic as a stacker toy and make one for girls and one for boys? Or rather, make one for girls and leave the original for boys. There’s no blue alternate for boys. It’s only girls who need to be singled out with a special color palate for no good reason. It’s so lame.  I mean, the original toy is a rainbow! These colors are found in this order in nature and could – if you really stretch logic to a tortured conclusion – be considered an early science toy that teaches babies about the color spectrum!

There is nothing about this toy that needs to be “boy” or “girl”. It’s just a toy. Everyone can play with it and it’s fun. The same goes for the pink Etch-a-Sketch I saw recently. Totally unnecessary. Generations of children of both genders played with these toys and no one was the worse for the color scheme.

Read all about it at Babble!