^{Originally published on BabyCenter.com August 19, 2013}

I’m a man, and I like the color pink.

Were I in elementary school, this might be the cause of quite a bit of ridicule.

An account from last week of the trials of a boy who likes the color pink has made its rounds, and unfortunately I see no easy solution. The boy in question has a story that isn’t really all that out of the ordinary – he likes the color pink but doesn’t want to wear it to school because he’s afraid kids will pick on him. This tale resonates with me for several reasons.

First, my own son currently loves the color pink. I make animal balloons for him, and instead of asking me to make a dog or a monkey, he currently just asks for “a pink one.” His infatuation with the color pink might be a temporary thing (he wanted everything to be green not too long ago), but it’s still disheartening to think that he might have to lie about his favorite color in school because he’s afraid of what other kids might say to him.

Second, I know a thing or two about being picked on for having “girly” things. My tendency to wear pink clothing is relatively new, but I wound up having a miserable summer camp one year because my parents gave me sheets with a floral pattern on them and I had a Winnie the Pooh toothbrush. The teasing felt bad enough to me that I actually threw out my toothbrush. Fortunately, one of the counselors noticed my sudden lack of dental hygiene and bought me another one, or I would have gained about 27 cavities by the end of the summer.

Third, the general conception of pink as a girls-only color really ticks me off. I don’t know of any other color that is so strictly divided along gender lines. I strongly suspect that the main reason pink is seen as girly is because toy and clothing manufacturers decided that they could make more money by claiming the color pink as something specifically for females.

Whether or not that is true, I feel like somebody in marketing is personally calling me stupid whenever I walk into a toy store and see the “girl” Legos that are color-coded pink. It’s this amazing brand of double-sexism where the boys are restricted from the pink things and girls are by implication not meant to be interested in things that aren’t frilly and pastel.

There are a very few things I can do about this other than mutter curses and shake my fists at the sky. One of them is what I do normally: I wear pink shirts sometimes. I’m not trying to make a statement – I just think I look good in pink. And by being so nonchalant about it, hopefully my son won’t have the same stigma about the color that much of our society does.

As to boys who like pink getting teased by other kids, my theory is that the best thing to do is to focus on anything you can do to build your kid’s self-esteem. I spent a lot of my adolescent years going out of my way not to get picked on, and bullies can sense that stuff. A kid who has enough confidence in himself can show up to school with a pink beret and dancing shoes without anybody cracking a joke. The more somebody stays true to himself, the less trouble anybody is going to give him.

_{Featured Image: Sarah Brooks}