Is this the end of pink for girls and blue for boys?

2014-11-04 16:42 China Daily Web Editor: Yao Lan

Is this the end of pink for girls and blue for boys?

'Gender neutral' parenting, which involves bringing your child up without revealing or referencing their sex, is a hot topic right now.

Along with celebrity trailblazers Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, thousands of parents worldwide are subscribing to the idea that you shouldn't force gender stereotypes on a child.

And it seems this attitude has spilled over to clothing, with many shunning traditional 'pink for girls' and 'blue for boys'.

A survey of 843 parents of 0-3 year olds showed that the majority of parents are happy to dress their children in non gender specific colours with 82 per cent of parents saying they like blue clothing on girls.

However significantly less (47 per cent) say they like pink clothing on boys.

Dr Amanda Gummer, child psychologist and founder of Fundamentally Children says: 'Children need the freedom to develop their full potential without preconceptions about what girls or boys should do or how they should behave.

'Studies show that adults treat children differently when dressed in gender-stereotyped clothing so the move towards less gender-stereotyping in clothes as well as in toys and other areas of children's lives is to be welcomed.'

Nicolas de Rosen, one of the three founders of Box Upon a Time, a subscription box service for parents who commissioned the study, says:

'We have found a huge trend in parents moving away from simply dressing their children in gender specific colours. Parents are looking for more variety when it comes to their children's wardrobes and want clothes that will express their own personal taste and style.'

'With so much choice now available to parents they no longer feel they have to dress their children in stereotypical pink and blue.

'Gender neutral colours such as white, red, yellow and grey are very popular amongst our customers.

'In fact, we have found that when parents were given a choice of 12 colours, pink comes up as one of the least popular, only followed by brown.

'The most popular colour is white, with 95 per cent of parents selecting this as one of the their favourite colours of choice. The survey has also shown that red, yellow and grey are big hits with parents.'

粉色专属女孩蓝色专属男孩的时代不再

“中性”养育孩子成为了如今的一个热门话题，它指父母在抚育孩子的过程中，不刻意向孩子灌输ta的性别这样一种理念。

随着名人布拉德·皮特和安吉丽娜·朱莉在这方面开了先河，全世界成千上万的父母们纷纷支持这一理念，即，父母不应该将刻板固化的性别印象强加到孩子身上。

而且这种态度似乎已经蔓延到了服装上，许多父母避开粉色属于女孩、蓝色则属于男孩的传统观念。

一项对家有0-3岁小孩的843名父母的调查显示，大多数父母都乐于跳脱性别特定的颜色来打扮他们的孩子，其中，82%的家长表示他们喜欢给女孩穿蓝色衣服。

然而，与之相较，乐于给男孩穿粉色衣服的父母数量则明显较少，只有47%。

儿童心理学家、“观察儿童本性（Fundamentally Children）”的创始人阿曼达·古默（Amanda Gummer）博士说：“儿童需要自由来充分发挥他们的潜能，而不是以一种先入之见来告诉他们，女孩或男孩应该做什么或者他们应该如何表现。

研究表明，当儿童穿着固化性别的衣服时，成人将会区别对待儿童。因此像减少性别固化的服装、使用的玩具等其他儿童生活方面的举动是值得欢迎的。”

尼古拉斯·德·罗森（Nicolas de Rosen），箱时（Box Upon a Time）（一种为那些委托研究的父母提供订阅箱服务的机构）的三位创始人之一，表示： “我们已经发现父母们逐渐不再简单地给他们的孩子穿性别特定的衣服。父母希望孩子的衣柜里有更多种类的衣服，并希望用衣服来表达他们自己的个人品味和风格。

“随着父母面临花样繁多的选择，他们不再觉得非得把他们的孩子打扮成特定固化的粉色和蓝色。

“中性颜色，如白色，红色，黄色和灰色很受消费者的欢迎。

“事实上，我们已经发现，当我们给定父母12种颜色来选择时，粉色是紧接着褐色之后最不受欢迎的。

“最受欢迎的颜色是白色，超过95%的父母将其选为最喜爱的颜色之一。该调查还显示，红色，黄色，和灰色也是父母选择的大热门。”