Part One:

Everyone has been taught that girls are bright and beautiful pink and men are strong blue. This was taught before we were born. Our parents may have found out what sex we were before our birth. Some people even host a gender reveal party, a party that reveals the gender of your baby to everyone including the parents using two colours: blue and pink. Is it necessary to identify someone with a colour? My self story, Pink + Blue = Purple, shows how I am not just pink or blue, I am purple, a colour the occurs when you mix blue and pink.

Paige, a classmate of mine, talks about “Picking up my small brushes I began to make small strokes of blue eyeshadow on my eye, hoping to blend it in. I was ecstatic, my first-time applying makeup as a young girl. I knew it was a gender stereotype to wear makeup but there was something about it that overjoyed me.” She knew gender stereotype, and she enjoyed it. She was proud and believed in herself that the makeup would blend.

Some girls think makeup is a form of art. Some girls may wear makeup because it makes them feel beautiful. Social media expects girls to look perfect by wearing makeup. It makes them feel confident and feel beautiful. Some girls may fear they won’t be accepted if they don’t wear makeup.

A quote from one of my other classmates that is a mom is talking about herself, “Brie, most mornings you are killing your mom role.” She has a family, something most girl can’t wait to achieve. Little girls are taught this from their own mom, having siblings and simply playing house at a young age. Being a mom is something I have always wanted to do. It is expected that women want to get married and have children of their own. For many women this is their dream come true, but also an expectation that women are taught. If this expectation isn’t upheld, people may think you are being selfish, because you do not want children or say you are just are not ready.

I wasn’t taught to be a girl or a boy. When I was young, I liked playing with my sister with our dolls, but I also liked playing with my brother and his action figures.  A quote from my blog is “We would be so engrossed, we would play for hours!” something every child does when they are having fun and are interested in playing with their toys. I knew other girls played house or dolls at a young age and once they became older they would be interested in fashion, hair, makeup and eventually get married and becoming a mom. I was interested in dolls and playing house, and now as a young adult know a little bit about beauty and do eventually want children when the time is right.

Part Two:

This article talks about the history of pink is for girls, blue is for boys. In the early 1900s pink was accepted as a masculine colour, because it was seen as a stronger colour. Blue was thought of pretty and dainty, which would be feminine. Current society believes the opposite. Parents host a gender reveal party to celebrate their baby’s unknown gender is using pink (girl) and blue(boy).

To me, it shouldn’t matter the gender of your soon to be baby is. I have learned a lot of about gender from my ECS 110 class. There is more then two genders and I think people should learn more about this. Gender is a hard concept to understand and hard for some people to accept. It is hard for some people to accept gender, because we see many stereotypes of how males and females should act. We see this everyday with the media and advertisements. Watch the video, to see how women are sexualized, and thought of as submissive to men.

After reading some of my classmate’s fourth self story about gender, I found Austin’s story. He wrote, “After all I got picked on the previous week for having nail polish on, I guess cause boys are not suppose to like that.” Painting nails should not make men less then a man. When I was a child, my sister and I would paint our nails and often would practice on the rest of our family (my dad, mom and brother). My mom would groom our nails and paint them a bright beautiful colour. She would also paint my brother’s nails, but clear so they look shinny and well groomed. Why should someone be made fun of, because of something they like? I think people should be more accepting of people and like them for them, not based on their appearance. We should look what is in the inside of people.

In 2018, hashtag paint your nails for Bruce (#paintyournailsforbruce) was an online campaign that asked men to paint their nails for Bruce Jenner, who is living as a transgender woman. This showed support to the Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, Queer (LGBQ) community. Another reason you might see men’s nails painted is because Aaron Gouveia’s son, Sam, was bullied at school for having his nails painted. There was only one child who stood up for Sam. His father posted a tweet telling what happened and posted a picture with himself and his son with their nails painted.

Looking back, comparing my childhood to others, I never realized how lucky I was. I was treated fairly, I was not picked on, because I liked to do boy things, I was accepted by most people. Not being taught to act only one way has given me an open mind and accepting of people.

Bibliography

(Class Material)

Hartmann, Margaret. The History of Pink for Girls, Blue for Boys. 2012. “https://jezebel.com/the-history-of-pink-for-girls-blue-for-boys-5790638&#8221

Zelinski, Sarah. Representation of Gender. 2013. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaB2b1w52yE&feature=youtu.be

(Not Class Material)

Miller, Ryan W. His kindergarten son was bullied for wearing nail polish. So he painted his nails, too. 2018. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2018/10/23/nail-polish-bullying-dad-paints-nails-son/1745519002/