As a baby shower present I received an egg carton full of socks -- 12 tiny pairs of socks, each pair rolled up and nestled into the space where an egg would have sat. It was amazingly cute; somehow no baby clothes are smaller or sweeter than socks. Each pair is a different color, all with white stripes: red, yellow, orange, chartreuse, green, turquoise, blue, Prussian blue, black ... and pink and purple.
For a while I deluded myself, and I kept the pink and purple socks handy with the others. Well, why shouldn't my son wear pink socks? I could think of no reason that wasn't uncomfortably sexist. But as months passed and I never put the socks on him, I finally moved them to an out-of-the-way shelf in the closet. I told myself this was not gender stereotyping, I was not limiting my son -- it was simply that he owned no pink or purple clothing with which the socks would match. (This was technically true, but it isn't like he owns a lot of chartreuse clothes, either.)
For Christmas, however, Izzy received a tie-dyed t-shirt. Most of it is blue-toned, but today as I put it on him, I noticed it also has purple. The purple socks leapt to mind. It was time for me to ante up, or to admit I was scared to dress my son in purple socks. I fetched the socks from the closet. They were more lavender than I remembered. I put the socks on him anyway.
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