(no subject)

[novapsyche]

In my communist utopia, babies would not be color-coded into gender based on their born sex. They'd all be swaddled in green and their nursuries would similarly be a nice, soothing green color.

Instead of people saying, "It's a girl!" or "It's a boy!" the color green would signal, "It's a baby."

This post inspired by this news item: Boys like blue, girls like pink and there isn't much anybody can do about it, researchers said on Monday in one of the first studies to show scientifically that there are gender-based color preferences.

Comments

[vrax.livejournal.com]

They do it in hospitals to make it easy on the sleep deprived nursing staff. Green swaddling would be fine as long as there was some gender label, like a patch that said Girl or Boy on the chest perhaps. Take into account these kids don't even have names yet. They're only known as "Baby Boy/Girl LastName". Again, just so the staff knows which baby is which.

We did a sea foam blue/green in our nursery, and decided on that for either gender.

[jennkitty.livejournal.com]

i am very anti-gender stereotyping. i don't know that green is the answer, but something along those lines is a nice idea. i think boys should be allowed to wear pink, and girls blue, as well. yellow and green are nice choices. and personally i don't think there's a damn thing wrong with dressing a baby in black. it's one of the first colors they can distinguish. they've said black, white, red can stimulate mental development.

anyway, blah blah argh gender stereotyping.

this is why i generally buy nieces and nephews books.

vrax has a good point about hospital nurseries, though.

[pgdudda.livejournal.com]

I've never understood why it is that the first thing we tell a baby when it's born is "You're a girl/boy". Personally, I'd be far more interested in hearing "You're safe and healthy!" Health, not gender, should be the primary consideration.

Then again, I'm not one of those heteronormativists whose first question on seeing a baby is "Is it a boy or a girl?"... :-P

[novapsyche.livejournal.com]

Yes, I'm the aunt who buys books.

[vrax.livejournal.com]

The first thing I told mine was "This is your daddy talking, and I love you very much. Now let's go see mommy, she loves you too!" I don't think I mentioned gender until we began introducing the baby and people asked.

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

It's a nice communist utopia, I'd live there.

yay arbitrary polarizations!

[blackwinterbyrd.livejournal.com]

My mom tried to dress me in black as an infant. They weren't selling any soft flannels in black then.
She also refused to answer questions about my gender to strangers which resulted in hostility, no matter how gently she explained her 'social experiment.'
And I was not born with intermediate bits.
If you're born with intermediate bits...they just pick one, right? do they do a karyotyping on you? or just hack at you until your main bit is smaller than the regulation 2cm and call you female?

[brendand.livejournal.com]

Communist?

[hotwire7.livejournal.com]

We asked the hospital team to not make the traditional "it's a ..." announcement. They said they would do their best "but it's so habitual." In the event they managed to hold their tongues, and we got to see for ourselves when we were ready. It seemed gentler and it was what we wanted, but the end result was the same.

[novapsyche.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, definitely communist. Not that you could necessarily tell from this little snippet, but take my word for it.

[blackwinterbyrd.livejournal.com]

WHAT A BUNCH OF CRAP.

does the concept "socialization" mean anything?

[blackwinterbyrd.livejournal.com]

EDIT:
I mean the article. Total junk.

Have you read "The Dispossessed"?

[blackwinterbyrd.livejournal.com]

slap a barcode band-aid on its forehead.

[vrax.livejournal.com]

*roll eyes*

[novapsyche.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know. Unfortunately, the public eats this stuff up.

I have not read "The Dispossessed." Who's it by?

[blackwinterbyrd.livejournal.com]

Ursula K Leguin. She's done some good ones, also "The Left Hand of Darkness." They are all a generation ago, but I love them.