Colors are for Everyone

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Colors are for Everyone

August 30, 2011 by labelsareforjars

I’m in an ongoing conversation with a teacher/friend about gender and identity. She shared how her 5 year old son is very into the notion that “colors are for everyone” lately. No “boy colors” or “girl colors.” Any color for any person.

In talking about Q and how confining sex and assumptions around gender can be, she suggested the notion (which was really suggested by this wise 5 year old, but not in so many words) that gender is for everyone. As in, any gender for any person. Or every gender for every person. Or whatever gender anyone wants. No restrictions based on stereotypes. It came from the suggestion, by said wise 5 year old, that on a particular day when he was hanging out with Q and folks kept thinking Q was a girl, that maybe, in fact, he WAS a girl that day. None of us really know, he suggested. So wise. And so doable inside of the notion that gender is for everyone. So, I’m going with this conceptualization. I like it and am using it.

Posted in beyond labels, both/and, expanding gender notions, gender funneling, gender roles, gender stereotypes, social norms, stereotypes, support, transcending boundaries | Tagged community, expanding gender notions, gender, gender funneling, gender stereotypes, stereotypes, support, wise kids | 10 Comments

10 Responses

on August 30, 2011 at 8:18 pm | Reply sarahhoffman

I love this! So simple and true.
on August 30, 2011 at 8:19 pm | Reply RobMonroe

That’s a really cool way to think about it. It would make people a lot less crazy to adopt this notion, especially about children who are still forming their own identities anyway.
on August 30, 2011 at 8:47 pm | Reply Brigindo

What a beautiful concept.
on August 30, 2011 at 10:03 pm | Reply Lynda M O

Certainly seems more fair than our current system of exclusion and rigid stereotypical behavior.
on September 2, 2011 at 7:59 pm | Reply breakingdad

“No restrictions based on stereotypes” — that’s the goal.
on September 3, 2011 at 10:09 pm | Reply Habulous

“Gender is for everyone.” Brilliant.
on September 9, 2011 at 4:38 am | Reply J. Croston (@inthebigmuddy)

This a perfect example of a small moment providing huge insight. Thanks for sharing it. It drives my ten year old (as well as me) crazy when her four year old sister talks about “boy colors” and “girl colors” — our responses have fallen on deaf ears.
on November 4, 2011 at 12:26 pm | Reply Eliza Buchakjian-Tweedy

I love the moment-to-moment decision-making of gender. I love love love the wisdom of little children.

Or, as I tell me two-year-old son, who looks awesome in pink, purple, and sparkles, “you’re just you, however you want to be.”

(and thanks to LesbianDad for the nudge over here!)
on December 20, 2011 at 9:05 pm | Reply jvoor

Just read this article and thought of you and Q. This teacher is amazing. I wish they were all this sensitive.

http://togetherforjacksoncountykids.tumblr.com/post/14314184651/one-teachers-approach-to-preventing-gender-bullying-in
on August 31, 2012 at 12:48 pm | Reply Jamie

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