"Girls Really Do Prefer Pink!" and Other Lies Barbie Told Me

Since the moment I found I was having a girl, I've been thrilled with the idea. Never had any brothers, and for some reason (I'm mean?) I find myself correcting my little boy students easily twice as much as my little girl students. Perhaps I'm prejudiced. Perhaps my little boys have been raised with a "boys will be boys" attitude, whereas the little girls at my school have been raised to cross their legs and speak when spoken to. (I'm going with that one. You can't imagine how many families have fabulous older daughters and horrendous younger brothers, or vice versa!) Still, I LOVE raising my girl. And she will be receiving a play TOOL CHEST for Christmas. And a train set. And a Tonka truck or two.

But my major struggle has been with her clothing. I will not raise a 'pink girl'. I won't do it. Damn it, she will not be a Barbie, even if she is fortunate enough to inherrit her Aunt Laura's long legs and tiny waist instead of her mommy's, uh, 'good birthing hips'. For showers I requested as many gender-neutral clothes as possible, masking my dislike for the color pink as a desire to be frugal (I could use these clothes for baby #2, who may be a boy and not too into wearing little frilly pink bibs). For her first major public outing, a big Christmas Eve party and church, I dressed my precious 1 month-old in pale blue velvet. However, it gets harder and harder as she grows to find un-pink clothing, and some of the stuff out there is downright sickening. Target has some cute stuff that's less obnoxious. Pink pants, dotted with black, purple, and green flowers, and a matching white onsie that says "Mommy's Little Night Owl" underneath a purple owl. This I can do. I'm a sucker for funny messages on baby's shirts. As long as the words "shop" or "princess" aren't included.
Of course, to sock it to me, Maddie has more of my husband's coloring right now, and looks absolutely fabulous in pink. We ruddy red-heads, we don't touch it.

Now they've (who've?) published a study finding that women actually DO prefer the color pink. They tested abour 200 people, in their early to mid 20's, and the women miraculously leaned towards a preference for red-tinted colors. So surprise! Girls DO like pink! Barbie was right!

... um, anybody see a problem with this? I'm a big NURTURE vs. nature person. I believe that we have a huge hand in our children's future, including their color preferences. Twenty-somethings have had 20-something years to be schooled in the 'girls-wear-pink-and-boys-wear-blue' mindset. Twenty-somethings are MY age. Every toy, every easy-bake oven, every Barbie car, every everything was freakin' PINK. Magenta, usually, in the 80's. (PS - my parents went to several stores to find a teal Schwin for my birthday. Thanks Mom & Dad!) Shouldn't this study have been performed on, well, babies? Seriously, of COURSE adults follow traditional gender-color preferences. How many 20 year-old men are going to choose pink over blue? The write-up of the study mentions that there may be 'cultural influences' at work. It even admits there they really should have studied infants, who have not yet learned their rightful place behind the Fisher Price kitchen set vs. the Tonka truck. But "there are no plans" to attempt to recreate these results with the correct study group. Grrrr...

Thank God for Carter's "Pretty Blue" collection.