I Like Blue

Luna by Julie Anne Peters

Blue is my mother's favorite color, in fact. Through research I actually found that most girls prefer blues and greens and purples. Is this supposed to mean something significant? No, it's not. We can like any color really, no matter what any stereotype is. The reality is that humans find color pretty or interesting, and our interests cannot be confined within basic categories based on gender. I am a girl and I like blue. A boy can like pink, or purple, or turquoise, and it shouldn't matter. Whoever made the stereotype that boys like blue and girls like pink, has made our society forever corrupt in that girls and boys will always be judged on whether they hold the characteristics that each gender should have.

In the book Luna by Julie Anne Peters, the father is noticeably sexist-- which is hard to deal with when your son is a transgender. He is really into the idea of the females doing the housework and the males doing the handiwork. When asked why the sky is blue, he said: "because God is a boy. If God was a girl, the sky would be pink. As a' little boy the son wanted a barbie, so to the father there was "something wrong with him."

Maybe the father really isn't selfish, and he was just looking forward to having those father and son moments. Does that make it OK to force Liam (the son) to do sports, or work out in the gym? Not at all. Unfortunately, parents have their flaws. But failing to accept your child for who they are has some of the worst effects.

My little cousin Max likes the color pink. He has a pink hat, and a pink night shirt. His sister likes to play around in the dirt, and do sports, and rock climb. To me and to their parents, it doesn't make a difference. They can like any color and it won't make a difference, because they are both happy children who will succeed whether or not they like pink or blue. I don't see why that isn't the priority, but forcing your child into being the standard boy or girl is.