Solitary chicken - need advice

[Lesley]

I heard about this new campaign on the BBC this morning and for a while I thought it really was the colour which was being castigated..........having looked at the website I'm glad to see that it is more a campaign against sterotyping of young girls and PINK is a convenient hanger to use.

 

http://www.pinkstinks.co.uk/

 

I was quite disappointed to see that this is the same situation which was raised in the late seventies/early eighties when my two were little. I thought sterotyping and role models for youngsters had changed and I know that boys were used for advertising things like kitchen accessories........how has it all slipped back?? I actually looked at the Argos catalogue recently and was disappointed to see that all the girly toys were marketed to only girls and vice versa.

 

As regards the colour......I love pink!! but only raspberry/fuschia/magenta......not baby pink! With less than 2 years between my sister and I we were dressed like twins.......she always wore blue and I wore red......I wanted to wear blue I didn't come to like pink/purple until I was in my forties!!! My daughter hated pink and preferred black and didn't buy pink clothes for Lauren when she was tiny. Lauren didn't like pink until fairly recently but now approaching 12 she's veering towards black.........Jake hated pink until he was 8 when he decided he liked it and he (like my son) has always played with both 'boy toys' and 'girl toys'

 

I do know that no matter how much we try to influence some things....they never change. I never had any toy guns for my son or for Jake.......it never stopped them from using anything as a gun........... sticks, dolls, bananas, uncooked spaghetti........

[Cinnamon]

I love pink too, and like you I never ever wear baby pink, or Barbie pink - its got to be hot pink for me

 

Actually,saying that I don't have any hot pink clothes,but lots of accessories. My current bag is a gorgeous pink Kipling

 

Hot pink makes me smile

[Seagazer]

But surely just because a girl might like the colour pink and pretty things doesn't mean to say that she's going to be a fluff head? My DD (22) loves girly things but also loves meccano and is certainly not fluffy.

 

I've always just let my children play with whatever they've wanted. They've all had the play ovens, pushchairs, cars, hammer type toys.

[Helly Welly]

It's not so much the colour, it's the fact that, according to retailers, to be a girl you should like pink. There is no need for all this marketing towards girls by making everything pink. When i redecorated DD's room once, another Mum asked me if i was panting it pink or lilac, as if that was the only choice. Actually it was white with multicoloured, multisized circles and a ceiling of clouds. Pink or purple has never occured to me. DD doesn't like the colour anyway.

 

DD is seen as a tomboy because she doesn't like pink and fluffy things. She is also considerd to be slightly weird because she doesn't like the things she's supposed to like. Luckily she's a strong person.

[Saronne]

I hate being told what colour I must/must not like. I love all colours - especially rich, vibrant, happy colours...including pink (in all its range). I'm not a girly-girl- just free spirited, like most on this forum!

 

 

Saronne x

[Seagazer]

I doubt anybody deliberately makes their child like certain things such as dolls or cars, its just what happens.

 

I used to dress my DD in greens and blues (poor girl's hair didn't grow until she was about 2) people were always asking me what his name was? She has such startling blue eyes they just seemed to match better. She still ended up with pink stuff though at the end of the day.

 

I never liked pink but I do now.

[Saronne]

It's not so much the colour, it's the fact that, according to retailers, to be a girl you should like pink. There is no need for all this marketing towards girls by making everything pink. When i redecorated DD's room once, another Mum asked me if i was panting it pink or lilac, as if that was the only choice. Actually it was white with multicoloured, multisized circles and a ceiling of clouds. Pink or purple has never occured to me. DD doesn't like the colour anyway.

 

DD is seen as a tomboy because she doesn't like pink and fluffy things. She is also considerd to be slightly weird because she doesn't like the things she's supposed to like. Luckily she's a strong person.

 

She's not weird at all. Wish there were more out there who stood up to pressure to conform.

 

 

Saronne x

[Cinnamon]

Neither of mine were or are into pink really.

Cleo will wear it,so long as its heavily drowned out with black, & Devon has always loved aquas & turquoises.

 

The in laws are of the mindset that girl = pink

You should see some of the things they have bought them in the past,usually sent straight to Oxfam

Birthday cards are the worse.If it doesn't have little puppies on & lots of pink, they don't buy it

[chickencam]

My ED has always been an all shades of blue girl, my youngest went through a very brief pink phase, now prefers purple and black and white stripes.

 

There is so much brand marketing that goes on to both boys and girls and I find this far more worrying.

[Happy chickens!]

I think this is a really interesting campaign - on the one hand shops will stock what they will make money out of, so who can blame them, but on the other, by selling/promoting in the way they do a market is created with pester power when the children see it.

 

It is important that all children - of both sexes - have choices and it is up to us as parents to guide them to make good ones, but it gets harder to do so when the choices are so unattractive!!!!

 

I personally find all the pink rather overwhelming, but as a small girl would probably have loved it! Sometimes I'm glad to have 2 boys! (Who could chose pink anytime they want, but of course have been conditioned by adverts to go yuk if they are offered it, unless it's food! )

[docsquid]

I like lots of colours, including pink, but actually pink doesn't suit me much, so I don't wear it much.

 

I was an only child, and a bit of a tomboy, in that I preferred playing with cars and making Airfix models of space rockets and so on. I was given dolls, but decided to practice my First Aid on them, rather than dressing them up and doing their hair! I always preferred to help my Dad take our succession of old cars apart than help Mum in the kitchen, although I did both.

 

When I first met my husband he was impressed that, when instructed to get down in the pit and undo the outlet manifold on his rally car that we were doing up, I could do it without asking which bit it was! I introduced him to motorcycles and motorbike track days, not the other way round.

 

People are continually amused by the fact that I'll happily jump on a tractor or road roller and drive it about as it if is something strange for girls to do. Tradesmen with whom we do business think it odd but amusing that I can do welding, or use a lathe or band-saw.

 

I think I was lucky that my parents just let me play with things I liked to play with: I preferred cars so I got cars, I preferred making dens in the garden to a dolls' pram, so I got to make dens, I preferred changing the head-gasket with my Dad to doing my doll's hair, so I changed the head-gasket (and how useful it was to learn how to fix cars too!).

 

However I do think boys have a much harder time of it if they want to do traditionally girly things: How many boys can you think of who have sat down to learn knitting from their gran? How many boys get encouraged if they show an interest in styling their sister's doll's hair? Not as many as the number of girls who are encouraged to fix their brother's car, I suspect. Tomboy girls are seen as having a bit of spirit, but boys who like traditionally female things are seen as being potentially gay, or a bit cissy. Why? It probably takes more guts for a boy to stick at hairdressing or knitting than for a girl to become a mechanic, given the stick that that boy will have to take take.

 

What surprises me is that these stereotypes are still in place 45 years after I was making my Airfix models and playing with cars, often perpetuated by grand-parents of my age who should know better. Maybe my generation were lucky in that our aunts or grandmothers had all been in service during the War, and some of them were land girls, army mechanics, or motorcycle despatch riders - so stereotypes were meaningless to them.

 

I just try and provide other girls with an example and hope that one day my car is serviced by a woman!

[Seagazer]

My YS loves to do a bit of knitting! He's also tried cross stitching, that thing where you pull the wool through a tapestry type thing (sorry brain not working today!) he loves baking and drawing and he had a doll and pushchair when he was younger

 

My hubby was also taught to knit by his grandmother when he was younger and he used to go to ballroom dancing!!

[craftyhunnypie]

I love pink, but I absolutely much prefer red! So rich & warm.

 

Emma.x

[chickencam]

My son has tried his hand at both tapestry and knitting and loves to cook, but is a train geek too and also loves cars. A good rounded individual I think

[Alis girls]

Love pink want a pink Eglu

[Ness3103]

one of my twin boys (aged 6) used to love pink, he has a pink leapster and wanted me to decorate his bedroom pink . we did have to draw the line at the pink, sparkly bike with glittery tassles though i personally wouldn't have minded but it wouldn't have been fair for him to have to deal with other peoples hangups. both boys had a doll and buggy which they loved playing with. since being in school they think if something's pink then it's only for girls. they both want the soap and bath bomb kit which is always being advertised on tv but say they can't have it because it's pink and only for girls. i have told them they can have what they want as it's for both girls and boys, the colour doesn't matter.

[BarbaraJ]

Peer presure in the end has more of an influence to be honest. I have 2 girls and a son in the middle. The eldest did ballet, then son 2 1/2 wanted to do it too, i never had a problem with whatever my kids wanted to do. Bought the eldest dolls and stuff for a bit but she preferred drawing , reading etc to dolls and had a boy for a best friend from 1-about 6 when he decided playing with girls wasn't on. gave up dancing after a year:( Son had a girl for a friend from 3-about 9 they were inseperable but he played with boys to and there stuff and had a baby doll and buggy too.

Youngest is a real girly girl only played with girls, dolls, hair , pink stuff ,danced for 15yrs not at all from me as, like my eldest i wasn't into that stuff.

The girls bedroom now their 18 and 23 is lilac and very bright pink their own choice

My son continued with his ballet and modern dance until at 6 he decided no and i know it was because other boys teased him such a shame and his teacher was devestated as he was good too Now 20 he plays basketball in the summer goes to the gym and spends way ro much time on the PS3 they all have long time bf's and gf's too.

[chickenNutter]

I wholeheartedly agree with this campaign. It is not specifically the colour pink that is bad it is how the colour has been hi-jacked to convey a fluffy-headed image that encourages girls only to see themselves a human Barbie Dolls.

 

I hardly know any little girls from the age of 6 or 7 onwards (my own included) that aren't obsessed with their appearance to the exclusion of all else, and wanting to be like the 'successful' air-headed simpering girls that appear in film and TV like Paris Hilton, Miley Sirus, all the girls in High School Musical etc, who tragically have become the only role models available to them.

 

When I was 9 or 10, little girls had hair of all lengths and dressed in a multitude of colours and clothes. Do you ever see a little girl without long hair now? I can remember my daughter nearly having kittens when after the nth attack of nits I suggested she have a shorter style to make removing them easier. She burst into tears and said that girls with short hair are ugly and not proper girls.

 

That is SAD! Little girls are being conditioned to think that the only way to be valued as a person is to be fluffy, pink and over the top girly. Then when they grow up they wonder why in the workplace etc, they are sometimes not taken seriously, or not respected by men.

I despair!

 

Rant over.

[chickencam]

Peer pressure is such a problem, and the need to conform is strong. We have always told our children to be true to themselves. I think that this is the most valuable lesson to learn in life, but it is so hard, with mass media etc

[docsquid]

My son has tried his hand at both tapestry and knitting and loves to cook, but is a train geek too and also loves cars. A good rounded individual I think

 

Excellent! My Dad used to do tapestry, and was good at it too. But I enjoyed it more when I was fixing cars with him

[Helly Welly]

I wholeheartedly agree with this campaign. It is not specifically the colour pink that is bad it is how the colour has been hi-jacked to convey a fluffy-headed image that encourages girls only to see themselves a human Barbie Dolls.

 

I hardly know any little girls from the age of 6 or 7 onwards (my own included) that aren't obsessed with their appearance to the exclusion of all else, and wanting to be like the 'successful' air-headed simpering girls that appear in film and TV like Paris Hilton, Miley Sirus, all the girls in High School Musical etc, who tragically have become the only role models available to them.

 

When I was 9 or 10, little girls had hair of all lengths and dressed in a multitude of colours and clothes. Do you ever see a little girl without long hair now? I can remember my daughter nearly having kittens when after the nth attack of nits I suggested she have a shorter style to make removing them easier. She burst into tears and said that girls with short hair are ugly and not proper girls.

 

That is SAD! Little girls are being conditioned to think that the only way to be valued as a person is to be fluffy, pink and over the top girly. Then when they grow up they wonder why in the workplace etc, they are sometimes not taken seriously, or not respected by men.

I despair!

 

Rant over.

 

DD has short hair, can't stand Miley Cyrus and i sometimes wish she would be obsessed with her appearance!!

[Lesley]

She's lovely just the way she is Helly

[chickenNutter]

I wholeheartedly agree with this campaign. It is not specifically the colour pink that is bad it is how the colour has been hi-jacked to convey a fluffy-headed image that encourages girls only to see themselves a human Barbie Dolls.

 

I hardly know any little girls from the age of 6 or 7 onwards (my own included) that aren't obsessed with their appearance to the exclusion of all else, and wanting to be like the 'successful' air-headed simpering girls that appear in film and TV like Paris Hilton, Miley Sirus, all the girls in High School Musical etc, who tragically have become the only role models available to them.

 

When I was 9 or 10, little girls had hair of all lengths and dressed in a multitude of colours and clothes. Do you ever see a little girl without long hair now? I can remember my daughter nearly having kittens when after the nth attack of nits I suggested she have a shorter style to make removing them easier. She burst into tears and said that girls with short hair are ugly and not proper girls.

 

That is SAD! Little girls are being conditioned to think that the only way to be valued as a person is to be fluffy, pink and over the top girly. Then when they grow up they wonder why in the workplace etc, they are sometimes not taken seriously, or not respected by men.

I despair!

 

Rant over.

 

DD has short hair, can't stand Miley Cyrus and i sometimes wish she would be obsessed with her appearance!!

 

I envy you. It is all alien to me. I think they gave me the wrong baby at the hospital.

Can I do you a swap?

[bronze]

I like pink but I like lots of colours. I do hate that all girls stuff seems to be pink but I also hate the tagline pink stinks as I think it can be very nice.

[Valkyrie]

My favourite colour has always been green. Pink and green go together quite well (er, a fair few quilty bits seem to be overly pink ), but black sets pink off very well. It's OK when it's mixed in with other colours - I like florals - oops more pink, but then lots of greenery too.

I used to tinker with wood and chisels and drills, hammers, nails - my dad always let me play with the tools. As a result of all that play I made our rabbit hutch and boy was it a good one - better than those flimsy things in the pet shops.

Then he was good with car engines too (being an engineer) and so was my grandad, so I was always leaning in and helping to do stuff there. I used to look after my first car (my lovely peppermint Fiesta). I conked out when we were at the library and OH tried to fix it. I just gave it a couple of taps on the solenoid and BRRRMMMM - voila! Naughty car for making him look an idiot when a female can make it work and not him.

Don't mention Hannah Montana to me . . . although I did rather fancy her dad once.

 

And who in their right mind decided that pink Honda Jazz would be nice? Bleh, mines RED!