Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/pink-dresses-and-plaid-shirts-gender-nonconformity-in-early-childhood/5024640/
“Every day one of my boys goes to the dress-up corner and slides a silky lavender dress over his jeans and t-shirt,” reported an early childhood education graduate student. “He dances around the room in the dress and sparkly play heels, then sits down and rubs his hands on the fabric. Do you think he has a problem? Should I say something to his parents? I do not think his dad would want his son dressing like a girl.”
Recent media attention has increased public awareness of gender differences. Reality television, news programs, and magazines such as “Time” and “National Geographic” depict children, teens, and adults who do not conform to traditional cultural definitions of girl/boy or man/woman (Henig, 2017). Teens and adults take hormones and undergo surgery to transition to another gender. While the conversation on gender expression is not a new phenomenon, it has stirred up new issues and debates that reach people of all ages across our country.
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, mothers dressed their infants of both genders in white dresses. In 1914, a magazine article recommended pink for boys and blue for girls. It is thought that pink showed more strength, as a pale version ...