It seems that the wave of pink-a-rama has come crashing down on me. Little girls need to be covered with it from head to toe as a giant flag to everyone around them saying "I am a girl if you couldn't tell". It's silly that gender is so closely tied to what color a baby is wearing, but newborns all look alike - wrinkly and a little weird.
It didn't occur to me until after Dexter was born, covered in green, brown or black in his early months, why he'd sparked so many inquisitions from strangers as to whether he was a boy or a girl. He wasn't wearing baby boy blue to scream unabashedly to everyone that he was born with a penis. This time around, for whatever reason, I've stepped out of my usual hyper-critical state and embraced the often loathed practice of utilizing a long-hated color to help identify my soon-to-be-born daughter as a girl. Everything is f'n PINK! It's not the frilly, pastel pink, but the in-your-face hot pink that's bold, sassy and puts pastel in it's place.
I've always disliked pink because it embodied traditional gender-role stereotypes. Now I've grown up and I realize that there's some validity to those stereotypes. Like it or not, having kids put my priority on my family over my career. My husband works more than I do, so I tend to do more housework. That's just the way we make it work. If my 16 year old self met me today, she just might hate me and I'm okay with that.
The other big pink stink is of course Barbie. It's the second thing I think of when I think of pink. She's irritating because of her exaggerated physical characteristics, but that's no different than the action figures boys play with. I had 3 Barbies when I was a girl. They never had clothes on and I cut their hair to varying lengths. The shortest was so short that you could see every part of where the hair was attached. It looked a lot like cornrows. I'm pretty sure she was my lesbian Barbie even if I wasn't old enough to realize it at the time. I called her the "Future Barbie". It just goes to show you that the girl has control of the Barbie and not the other way around.
Without those excuses to hate pink, I can now throw out those hangups. Yes I will be putting a gender denoting color on my child. I am buying more pink than I have in my entire life combined. I am embracing it now, so that she will be able to make her own choice to hate it later.
I am 30 weeks pregnant today, and have only taken one belly pic so far (not posted anywhere). Here is a flashback to 30 weeks pregnant with Dexter.
