I'm feeling a little over-whelmed with all the lovely messages and comments I've received since my post yesterday! I've been smiling and laughing reading them all-- and thanks to all the people who complimented my stall set up... I was feeling pretty happy with the way it all looked too if I do say so myself.
Joe and I have been talking so much about that strange experience, and my mind has been wondering around this horrible concept of blue for boys and pink for girls, and the way that people didn't know how to understand my toys, how to look at them, and how the comments I heard were pointing to the need for classification/categorisation/pigeon-holing/stereotyping etc. The worst part for me was seeing kids dragged away from the toys, and thinking about what else they might be dragged away from, and why. Why it really matters if you give something blue to a girl, although that doesn't seem nearly as taboo as giving something pink to a boy. I really think it all comes back to homophobia and the preservation of the idea of happy families... trying to curtail the ever rising divorce rate and other 'unsightly' things. Rather than write a sociology or history essay, I'll just say I find it so sad.
I do however talk about things like this each week with my Glebe customers and I know that there must be lots of happy kids out there, who are being nutured and encouraged to find themselves, and it's another reason that I'm happy to have fluked my Mum and Dad, and my awesome brother, who don't seem to be so strangely affected all this craziness...
B.
P.S. that rad card is from this rad etsy shop!
