What’s in a Color?

Look at the picture below: 

Those shoes don’t warrant a second glance until I tell you that the person wearing them is a boy. I caught wind of this story earlier today. A mother allowed her son to wear pink shoes for his first day of preschool. The mother told the little boy that the shoes were made for girls and according to the article that I read, the little boy responded, “ninjas can wear pink shoes too.” Why couldn’t that be the end of the discussion?  The mother posted the picture on Facebook and some of her friends and family immediately criticized her decision to allow her little boy to wear pink shoes. Some people were concerned that the mother was subjecting her son to being ostracized and bullied and her actions would one day make the little boy gay. To all those people, I’d like to point out one very important fact: we are talking about a preschooler. It’s adults that have the problem. Adults are giving too much thought to the shoes. Why should a preschooler suffer because the adults around him want to place their baggage on his tiny shoulders? Kids aren’t born thinking that pink is for girls. Kids are taught that. There are no girl colors or boy colors just like there are no girl toys or boy toys, but society perpetuates the myth that there are. If I judged things from what I saw on television, I would think that boys play with action figures and girls play with dolls. I would think that boys like dump trucks and girls like easy bake ovens. I’m not saying that some children aren’t naturally drawn to certain types of toys, but I am saying that society tells children which toys they should prefer. All the little boy knows is that he likes the shoes. If you are truly concerned that kids might bully him about his shoes then why not talk to your kids, grandkids, nieces, nephews or whoever and let them know that people have the right to like different things and it is not cool to tease a boy because he likes a pair of pink shoes.