A Brazilian cleaning lady comes in to work on my mother's house every two weeks. She is a lovely person and she recently had a baby girl named Julia. As soon as she was able, the mother took her little girl with her while she cleaned houses. I was able to see Julia while I was at the parental home recently, and I drew this drawing in my Moleskine sketchbook. Julia sits in an elaborate tabletop cradle, with a pacifier in her mouth. She's 5 months old at this point. She's wearing that specific shade of hot pink which seems to be the uniform for little girls all over the USA and even overseas. Everywhere I look, when I see little girls they are dressed in this shade. Does this mean that when Mom goes to a store looking for clothes for her girl, there is only this pink shade available? Is this a way to identify girls as girls and make sure they are "feminine?" As far as I can see, there is no corresponding color (blue or Army green or whatever) for boys.
Pitt drawing pen on yellow Moleskine page, pink added in with colored pencil, about 4" x 5", May 2013.
3 comments:
I have a six month old girl, and two year old girl. It is definitely hard to find non-pink clothes. Kind of funny -- you can find "gender neutral" clothes in newborn-three month sizes, probably because people often by clothes like that for baby-showers, which are held during pregnancy before the parents know (or will say) what the gender is. But once you get to six months and up, the assumption is that the clothes need to make it very clear what the gender is, so most of the girl clothes are pink, pink, pink.
Personally I don't mind so much when someone confuses my little girl for a little boy, but it drives my husband nuts.
Anyway -- cute kid!
The manufacturers PUSH pink for girls! I have known several peopel with baby girls who specifically did NOT want to put them in pink, but could not find much in any other color! It is horrible that there is not better choices!
I'm afraid I'm one of those moms who dressed her daughter in pink. It was both so that people could tell she was a girl, since she had such pale blonde wisps of hair that she looked bald and like a boy, but also because it complimented her pale Holland Dutch skin and blue eyes. Now as a very independent 17 year old, she has her own unique, eclectic style. With her coloring, she might look like a Barbie but she does not dress like one.
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