OPINION: Will gendered children’s clothing soon be a thing of the past?
Are pink T-shirts for boys or girls? Is there a gender-neutral sartorial option?
A growing number clothing companies are letting parents choose gender-neutral options, the Associated Press reports, as some developmental psychologists caution that gendered items can have an influence on the way children view themselves and others, CNN reports, even shaping choices well into adult life.
“Clothing isn’t trivial,” says historian Jo Paoletti, author of the 2012 book “Pink and Blue: Telling the Boys from the Girls in America,” in a phone interview with The Christian Science Monitor. “Clothing is a very intimate way of expressing who we are. The fact that people are becoming activists about this indicates that it is far from trivial.”