Triple The Dad

I posted last week about why I dropped my opposition to the color pink. Lo and behold, I stumbled upon this article about pink lockers at the University of Iowa. The lockers in the visitor's locker room, you see, are pink.  The walls have been that way since forever, apparently, but during a 2005 renovation the school took it a step further and added shades of pink everywhere, including lockers. There is pretty no question that when the practice started in 1979 it was intended as an insult.  And the new pink-hued lockerrooms were of course was called out as sexist and discriminatory.  But why is that?  Would it be sexist to put Tonka trucks out?  To make the benches appear like tires rising out of the ground?  If the visiting women's team's locker room was blue would that be sexist? Being offended by the presence of pink gives the people using that symbol, and the symbol itself, power.  If the visiting team wins 9/10 games, does the color pink...

When I first joined the world of Dad blogging I couldn't help but notice that lots and lots of Dads who blogged hated the way they had to dress their daughters.  There were plenty of articles in the mainstream press on the same issue.   Mommy blogs  jumped in as well. Were we limiting our daughters, or worse yet, damaging them, by dressing them in pink? I was certain that society limits girls, telling them both subtly and not-so subtly that they can't do certain things.  And sure, an adult is free to do whatever an adult wants, but once those signals are broadcast its hard to overcome, especially when those signals are received early and often. Now, my daughter wasn't going to run into quite the same situation, because she has to brothers the exact same age so they pretty much all play with the same stuff.  The boys play with Minnie and she plays with trains.  Though, somehow, she shows more interest in Minnie and baby dolls and they have more inter...

A lot of pixels have been spilled lately about “princess culture;” the idea that we program our daughters to love pink and princess and that this limits them; that we direct them to be “pink” and that absent culture they would grow up to be superior “blue.”  As if somehow “blue” were superior.  I hate the idea that my DD would ever be blocked in or constrained by my expectations. I’ll cop to this: We own a lot of pink clothes for her.  More than we would if I was the sole purchaser of clothing (or if I had any, or offered any, real input outside of occasionally complaining about to wifey).  Some of it is unavoidable.  Have you ever tried shopping for a 2-year-old girl?  If you want to avoid pink you better be ready to dress her in the same 3 outfits.  Every day. On the other hand, she is growing up with two brothers, experience the same rough-house play her 2 brothers participate in.  She plays at the same games, plays with the same toy...