Bullshit Project

I have not written in a while because I was feeling dismayed about how my last project turned out and I feel little inspiration about which to write.

But things are much better today!

In psychology "gender constancy" is the moment or stage of life when a young child realizes that his/her gender is concrete, permanent and that he/she will remain that gender for the rest of his/her life.  This usually happens around the age of 4.  This idea has been floating around in my head for while now and it is what I would like to do my bullshit project on.  Our culture puts a huge emphasis on gender and it starts at infancy.  Parents (for the most part) dress girls in pink and boys in blue.  We are obsessed with putting males and females in their places from the first breath!  When someone walks up to a parent with a baby, they feel that they should instantly be able to tell whether it is a boy or a girl.  And if they cannot tell, they'll ask the parent.  Is it a boy or a girl?  It is as if they cannot go on with their day without knowing what gender that baby is.  And no, you cannot just accept that it is a baby, a new life, a wonderful creation in itself.  Knowledge of gender is indispensable to some.

This continues heavily though the ages of toddlers and preschool (2-5).  I work at the WSU Children's Center in a preschool room.  There are boys and girls ages 3 and 4.  They are really great to talk to about things like this.  As one would expect, nearly all the girls wear pink on a regular basis (I used the work "nearly" so as to not be absolute though I cannot think of an exception).  I often ask girls and boys about color.  What is your favorite color?  Do you like this particular color, why or why not?  Girls often respond that their favorite color is pink, or they say pink along with other colors they name (i.e. blue, green, yellow, etc.).  Boys never say pink.  Boys say blue, green, red, black, orange.  I enjoy these conversations, though I do not push very hard because I don't want to take advantage of my position by interrogating the children in hopes of gaining some bit of psychological insight.

Sometimes I really want to just yell, What is the big deal about liking pink???  Because that is how I feel.  Not that there is anything wrong with pink.  I love it just as much as every other color in the rainbow.  But I know what they would say.  "Pink is a girl color."  This is what they, and most other people in our society have been conditioned to believe.  From birth, girls wear pink.  How can I expect a 4 year old girl to understand that the only reason she claims pink as her favorite color is because she has been conditioned to?  I don't know that I can.  I feel that children are really missing out when we raise them to believe that this is a boy activity, this is a girl activity, boys: don't play with those dolls, those are for girls only; girls: don't play with those G.I joes, those are for boys.  They are missing out on new experiences, new ways to think about the world, new ways to learn.

This is what my bullshit project will be about.  I would also like to incorporate the double standard of gender roles in my project.  Boys are held in a much tighter box of what is socially acceptable that girls are.  Girls can play with almost any toy they want.  But if a boy plays dress-up and wants to wear a pink dress up then typically he will be discouraged immediately.  It blows my mind that there are parents out there (I really know some first hand) whom I have seen make a 3 year old boy take off a play-dress.  Are they afraid that the dress will turn their son gay?  Wow.  So getting back on track with the project, I want there to be a blue box.  Completely sealed, representing boys.  There will also be a pink sphere-shaped open form representing girls. 

My thoughts, these are.  (said in a Yoda voice)