Pink is for Boys, Blue is for Girls

I just wanna ask: what makes girly things girly and boyish things boyish? Who decided that lace is a girly, delicate item? Who decided that sports are more of a boy thing to do? Who decided all of this and why do we follow it?

Yesterday I was at work and this nice man and his nice daughters came up to my register to pick out balloons for her birthday party.
"Tell her what colors you want," the nice man said.
The girl searched her mind for a second and started with a list, "Pink and purple. Oh and blue."
"Are you sure you want blue? That's a boy color. You don't want that," The man said to the young impressionable daughter.
"Alright Daddy, you're right," agreed the daughter.

Hmmmm....I know this isn't a big crime. The dad isn't spreading racism or anything like that. But this is how the separation between what is girly and what is boyish comes to be. It I find it funny that he asked his daughter to pick colors, and when she did, told her that one of those colors was a wrong choice. Of course, that's when I had to but in and tell the dad that I could put some baby blue balloons in there, which is somehow more girly simply because it has the name "baby" attached to it. He quickly agreed with that. Doesn't want his daughter to become too butch, now, does he?

I just have to wonder, what if it were the other way around? What if blue was a prominent girl color? What if pink was the color of choice for boys all across the land? Would the world be destroyed? No, because all of this color nonsense is socially derived.

I'm not saying the color thing is a big deal by any means. But it's sad that we are the ones telling our kids what is macho and what is feminine. We are the ones who create the bullies when one boy isn't macho enough or one girl isn't feminine enough. This is how it starts.

But it seems a little hard to change. Yesterday I told my dad that if my little sons (if I have some, ever) want to wear a pink shirt, they can. He just about fell off the couch. "That's just mean," he said. "Do you want your boys to be picked on?"

So how do you change society? Really I'm not sure. I guess it just takes time.