Pink is for girls. Blue is for boys. It's just the ways of the world, right? I truly believe that for the most part. Girls can obviously wear whatever color they want to. The same holds true for boys. I mean, Drew wore a pink shirt on Easter a year or so ago. Furthermore, I remember very clearly in the 80s when every guy had a pink shirt in his closet. But, shouldn't those kids be given a choice if they want to wear such a TYPICAL gender-specific colored shirt?
I'm a mom of boys. Three of them. Two are in a private school. A private school that likes to make a new t-shirt for everything. Field Day was no exception. Pay $5 and your child can have their Field Day t-shirt and wear it on Field Day and it's so exciting. I'm thinking... a cardinal red t-shirt that says something like "FWC Field Day" on it. But it was something different altogether. Each teacher was able to select the color of said Field Day t-shirt and Josh's teacher. Yeah, she selected FUCHSIA!?! He saw the t-shirt and was mortified. These are young men... who are starting to develop a sense of style and of their own identity. They have to conform to uniform regulation day in and day out. This teacher is in a class in which the majority of her students are BOYS and she chooses FUCHSIA?!! I just think it's wrong. My son was mortified. Yeah, it's just a shirt color but if you're choosing something for an entire classroom -- there are so many other colors under the rainbow she could have chosen and different hues of each that's it's just... pathetic, at best... to force such a GIRLIE color upon these boys.
Flash forward to this morning. I went to a parent's meeting about a school trip for the 5th grade class. They leave in their red uniform shirt and then during the day one day, they're to wear their Field Day t-shirts. This trip went from awesome, to something he's simply going tolerate now. He hates pink THAT much.
And frankly, I don't blame him. I do, too.
We skipped Field Day the first grade year because the t-shirts were LAVENDER tie-dye. Seriously, people.... I'm sure that 95% of elementary teachers are women but just because they're estrogen factories sportin' mammaries, doesn't mean that 95% of students share the same anatomy. Do you students a favor.... pick something a little less GIRL.
I'm annoyed, so I wrote a note to the principal. I'm sure my kids will be blacklisted now but I've never been one to sit idly by when I see an injustice.
Although my son is very close to graduation and we haven't been 'guilt-ed' into buying any class t-shirts lately I(we) remember the days... remembered but not missed.
ReplyDeleteGood news, it gets better.
My boy would be thrilled...he's all about different colors and thinks that blue is "boring." I think this could be a pretty powerful lesson in WHY we think certain colors are "girlie" and others are "masculine." Colors are just colors...What I'm not sure of is whether Josh is in a right age bracket for such a lesson...I'm entirely clueless as I have yet to reach this age and know not what the mindset is. All I know is if I told Jay he was going to get to wear a hot pink shirt, he'd jump up and down for joy and run right off to find some awful orange or yellow plaid shorts to wear with it! :-)
ReplyDelete