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Color and Gender: Mother’s Struggle in Choosing Her Daughter’s Clothing

2021.11.15

Do you have any colors you like to wear? I like black and white best, but I also wear red, green, and blue. Adults choose whatever color they like. What about children? You rarely see a kindergarten boy wearing a pink shirt or a little girl wearing a dinosaur printed T-shirt in your neighborhood. 

 

That’s because there are gender norms in our society: we unknowingly follow the social values of women being womanly and men being manly. We are not asked or ordered, but we tend to follow the rules. These social norms limit one's actions and choices in life. It has been pointed out that women, in particular, are disadvantaged in their daily lives and in situations such as finding employment. I knew it was not a good idea to do anything that would instil such norms in children from an early age.

 

However, when I had a daughter of my own, I faced a problem when it came to choosing her clothes. In the kids wear section, there is a clear distinction between clothes for girls and for boys. The colors of girls' clothes are pink and pastel colors with flowers, strawberries, or ribbon motifs. For boys, the main colors are blue and green, and the patterns are mostly vehicles and dinosaurs. If you had to choose from the two, who would choose boys’ wear for girls?

 

When I have to purchase my daughter’s necessities, I am always faced with a dilemma. My 65-year-old mother used to say that girls should wear pink and bought her granddaughter pink clothes. I talked to my mother about the issue, and then, she accepted my idea and tried to choose other colors too. Yet sometimes I don't know what the right thing to do is. My daughter was often mistaken for a boy. Each time it happened, I wondered if I should have dressed her in pink. However, I didn't want to end up in a situation like the one in JeongMee Yoon’s photographs. The artist took pictures of contrasting children's rooms: girls' rooms filled with pink, and boys’ rooms filled with blue. This is what I've been worrying about ever since she was born. Now I try to balance between my beliefs and common sense.

 

The other day, I had to prepare a pair of sandals for my daughter because she uses them at daycare. I’d been looking at several online stores and finally decided to get pink ones with white polka dots. I liked the functionality and the reasonable price. How do you think my daughter reacted to the sandals? For the first time, she got interested in her stuff and wanted to put them on by herself! 

 

According to Hidemi Horikoshi's "Do Girls Really Like Pink?", many parents in Japan and abroad are troubled by the fact that their young girls have become obsessed with pink. I shudder at the thought that one day my daughter will be crazy about pink.

 

JeongMee Yoon’s website: http://www.jeongmeeyoon.com/aw_pinkblue.htm

堀越英美『女の子は本当にピンクが好きなのか』(河出文庫、2019

 

Photo Credit: The Author


Quiz

Q1. According to the article, what pictures are usually on boys' clothes?

Robots and spaceships

Vehicles and dinosaurs

Trees and flowers

 

Q2. Did the author's mother respect the author's views on children's clothing?

Yes, she did

No, she didn’t

She didn’t give an opinion

 

Q3. What were the sandals the author bought for her daughter like?

Pink with white polka dots

Pink with green polka dots

Pink and white stripes

 

Scroll down ↓ for the answers

 

 













 

 

 

 

A1. b

A2. a

A3. a

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