Pink

I visited a friend at Chateau and I was itching to lecture her 4-year-old boy who courteously said, “You are a girl,” simply because I was wearing a pink shirt. I said “No.” His mom was mum.

I wanted to do the same with his nosy nanny who scornfully asked, “Why are you wearing pink?”

This is not an issue of sexuality. In fact it is not supposed to be a big deal. But I am very much concerned about their limited perspective. Well, he is just FOUR YEARS OLD, what can I expect? Well, the nanny had limited education, what can I also expect?

Perhaps, both have grown up in absolute patriarchal contexts with parents without ample time to include gender sensitivity while interacting with them during their formative years. Yes, I blame it on their upbringing plus the reinforced stereotypes when exposed to ideological state apparatuses like the media, school, and church. Perhaps, they have been socialized that a man should wear blue shirts, play with guns and cars, watch Manny Pacquiao as he downs Morales, be rough, and choose the eagle as tattoo while girls must have pink panties with pink lacy ruffles, beautify Barbie, cross legs when seated, and pick a pink t-shirt with Tweety Bird on it.

This dichotomy makes me sick. While it makes life easy for some as it brings about “social order,” it muffles the appreciation of diversity in a world that now recognizes individuality and again, diversity. I am concerned because another boy might just grow up like any other traditional man who will reassert the superior position effortlessly bestowed upon him by society and use it to unnecessarily dominate women. It is a clear and early indicator of chauvinism for me.

Or I might just be overanalyzing. It is too early to tell. This boy will learn his lessons and might just wear pink shirts in the future too just like many male ramp models nowadays.

I hope next time I can properly and effectively share my ideas on postmodernism and deconstruct the oppressive texts of this essentializing. Or the challenge might be better worded as: I hope I can explain these to the yet intellectually, emotionally, and psychologically immature.