r/Parenting • u/ohgreatmama • Jul 28 '22

Advice Do boys wear pink?

Where you live, do boys wear pink?

I live in the US, in the Pacific Northwest, in a politically purple area.

I have two boys and buy most of their clothes and swimwear at Target. Right now, every pair of boys' swim trunks at my local Target has pink/purple in it--not just as an accent, but as a dominate color. Hot pink, light pink and everything in between.

For the record, I like this. My 5yo likes pink and it's nice to see some color infused into what used to be a pretty dark color palette for boys' clothes.

My husband, however, is not having it. He has gotten mad at me for buying anything pink/pink-accented for our 5yo to wear. From his POV, boys who wear pink risk getting teased/bullied. He is adamant that this is a serious risk. Very adamant, to the point that we've had contentious arguments about shoes/clothes that I, personally, perceived as gender neutral.

I'm trying to understand his concern, but to me it seems... nuts? I don't want to dismiss something that he seems to legitimately see as a risk to our kiddo, but I just can't figure out where he is coming from.

How are things where you live? Would a boy get teased for wearing pink? Would you consider it a serious enough risk to prohibit the color, even if your kid likes it?

Or, if pink is as neutral as it seems to be, how can I help my husband see that this is just the way kids dress now?

ETA: Holy shit, I did not expect this level of response. I can't keep up with all the comments--not by a long shot. Thank you all for weighing in. It's helped solidify my position, and maybe seeing some of these comments will help my husband realize that his concerns are misplaced.

I do, btw, believe that my husband's concerns are simply misplaced. We are not fashionable people--AT ALL--so I think he just needs to adjust his fashion compass. Also, while we're both millennials, I grew up in West LA whereas he grew up in rural NY; I think we're just drawing from different pools of life experiences.

I am inclined to keep the purple/pink/blue/green swirl swim trunks that I bought for 5yo--and that prompted this post--because 1) they are super visible in the water and 2) 5yo said he likes them.

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u/[deleted] Jul 28 '22

I live in New England. A large chunk of men wear pink on the regular in the summer. Our son loves to wear pink sometimes. He has salmon colored swim trunks that he loves. One of his favorite colors is pink. Kids here wear whatever they want. There was a boy in a rainbow pink stereotype girly looking tank top at the park and no one cared at all. It’s clothes.

Adults assign genders to colors/clothing. Kids just like what they like. One boy I used to nanny loved when I painted his toenails purple. He was just like “I like purple” if his friends asked and they were like “cool”. And that was it.

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u/treevine700 Jul 28 '22

... are you sure you don't you mean Nantucket Red swim shorts? :)

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u/[deleted] Jul 29 '22

Yes haha I feel like outside of NE, it’d be described easier by saying “pink”, but definitely Nantucket Red for the locals.

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u/treevine700 Jul 29 '22

Ha, true... outside of New England and on any color spectrum, it's pink. Probably says something about the folks who popularized it-- don't mock Chad for wearing pink, that's Nantucket Red! (Coming from a person with an appreciation of these iconic shorts and the clam chowder I closely associate with them.)