Gender-Specific Clothing for Children
Frevele (2011), in the article “tracing the origin of the gender-specific clothing for children,” looks at the history of the dressing code for the children and tries to trace the origin of the culture of having children wear different clothes based on their gender. In the earlier times, both girls and boys used to wear white dresses and no one had issues with that. The article tries to answer the question of where the culture of “boy for pink and girls for blue” come from. Frevele (2011) note that one of the reasons for the change was that parents wanted to differentiate the gender of their children by mode of dressing. The designers further supported the move by designing clothes for both boys and girls.
I think that the ideas of Frevele (2011) are valid concerning the changing from the white dresses for all children to “pink for boys and blue for the girls.” The main aim was to separate the dressing for both girls and boys. The fact that pink is related to harder decisions and strength makes it fit for the boys. Blue seems more dainty and delicate and, therefore, suitable for the girls.
I, however, disagree with the argument that the change in the dressing for the boys and the girls was for feminist reasons and aimed at designing the role for both the girls and the boys. The argument that the dressing code was aimed at luring the girls for women’s roles through clothing is weak. The move by the anti-feminism to oppose the change, therefore, seems meaningless to me.
Almost everyone has ever asked him/herself the origin of the differences in the dressing codes, and especially for the notion of “pink for boys, and blue for girls.” The arguments by Frevele (2011) give necessary insights about this shift in culture from the white dresses for all children. The feminists’ explanation of this, however, seems to be erroneous.
