CarolynWomen are not obligated to wear makeup or long hair, heels and skirts. They are not obligated to have plastic surgery to look feminine enough for the rightwing misogynists.
DDR@ddr Yep. Pink frilly stuff and lipstick is 100% societal, 0% to do with DNA or gender, and women get to choose if they want to play the game.
Over There@oftencalledcathy @ddr kids like sparkles. They can have colour preferences. Blue and pink for boys and girls, though, was arbitrarily decided by marketers. It almost went the other way. Girls are often put in pink since babyhood, though, so that does leave an imprint.
@CStamp @oftencalledcathy Sure. Could have got lucky on random chance, but... kids are profoundly receptive to signals from society at large about what they should wear.
Anyway, used to be switched I think - red for Mars, blue for Venus, and the pastel versions of each for babies.
@ddr @oftencalledcathy kids used to wear white dresses, which is why folk often mistake little boys in old photos for girls. The idea of gender colours meant stores could sell more kids clothes and, initially, pink was considered a passionate colour more suitable for boys. This only began in the 1900s and had nothing to do with children’s preferences. It was a thing adults put on kids, and since it begins at birth, it gets indoctrinated into kids just as a matter of being.