Friday, November 12, 2010

Color Blind

When Galen went to kindergarten, I was so sad when he came home one day and announced that he could no longer like pink because, "pink is a girl color." It made me realize that the socialization process is a tough one...

As Liz points out, color really is gender neutral and it is only what we ascribe to it that matters. But we live in an external world and it can be a cruel one -- consider this text sent to poor Mac:

"Dear Mac...pink is just fine...sucka! Sincerely,_ _ _" [name protected but another boy whose name starts with Z]

This, my friends, is the world we live in...

So yes, pink is a lovely color -- my favorite in fact -- but we cannot force Mac to wear pink just to make a point about the need not to succumb to external ideas of what is appropriate for boys and girls. Mac does not wish to be a billboard for new ideas of gender -- he wants someone else to carry that mantle of pinkness, which is understandable (see above text for proof).

But we apparently cannot reach consensus about harness color so I think we will have to do something different about that -- something that includes everyone's ideas of what color he should wear (except Z _ _'s) -- stay tuned for that :)

3 comments:

  1. Tell Zed to simmer down, simmer down!

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  2. OK, how about something totally different? How 'bout LEATHER? (With red, or blue or lamb-natural fleece padding?)

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  3. Alpencross Rockin' Man in Pink (Floyd) begs to differ. He is named in part after my husband's Avon Walk team - the Men in Pink. He proudly sports a pink breast cancer ribbon collar and leash and has a blingy pink name tag. He also has a fancy show lead that is pink and grey made by Sindi Leo.

    Real mean wear pink!

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