Geek in Heels - Page 96

Apr 12, 2011 • In Baby, Claire, Funny, Parenting, Personal, Relationships

Pink is for Girls, Blue is for Boys?

Before having Claire I couldn’t understand why some mothers — even the die-hard feminists who eschewed all traditional takes on gender roles — would dress their baby girls in pink, frilly clothes all the time.

And as soon as Claire was born, I discovered why.

It’s because whenever she’s not wearing pink she’s often mistaken for being a boy.

And I’m sure that this is the exact reason most parents dress their baby boys in predominantly blue wardrobes as well.

I have personally never questioned these color associations with gender before. I always assumed that they are what society once deemed appropriate, and so I — along with billions of others — automatically grew up thinking this way.

What’s strange about this assumption is just how new the concept of “pink is for girls, blue is for boys” is. In fact, a 1918 issue of Ladies’ Home Journal stated:

The generally accepted rule is pink for the boys, and blue for the girls. The reason is that pink, being a more decided and stronger color, is more suitable for the boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is prettier for the girl.

Huh. Who woulda thunk?

Smithsonian Magazine discusses the evolution of color gender associations in further detail in an article featuring University of Maryland clothing historian Jo B. Paoletti, whose new book “Pink and Blue: Telling the Girls From the Boys in America” is due out later this year.

The article starts with a photo of former U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt at age 2½ (see left). At the time the picture was taken — 1884 — social convention dictated that boys wore dresses until age 6 or 7, also the time of their first haircut. FDR’s outfit was considered gender-neutral.

So what exactly happened between then and now to promote certain styles and colors to be gender-specific? There are various reasons, including manufacturer and retailer interpretations and the rise of the feminist movement that continued the rise and fall of this phenomenon.

And as technology advanced (ie, prenatal testing) and consumerism rose, the demand for “boy” and “girl” merchandise also went up.

The article is a fascinating read and I recommend anyone interested in sociology and/or gender studies to take a look.

I personally think it’s hilarious that the entire “pink is for girls, blue is for boys” idea could have gone either way. And it almost seems funny to think that pink was once considered a “more decided and stronger color.” But then again, that’s just 30+ years of society’s influence on me talking.

I can’t help but wonder if the trend will go the opposite way in the near future. Who knows? Maybe my grandchildren will consider pink a more masculine color than blue. And perhaps dressing all young children in dresses — which seems to be a more economical idea when you consider that dresses take longer to grow out of — will once again come into fashion.

And perhaps one day, my father won’t be embarrassed to buy a cute onesie like this for Claire:

This is what happens when a grandparent who doesn’t speak much English buys clothes for your daughter.
And yes, we dress her in it because we personally think it’s hilarious.

Via Boing Boing.

Harvard Entrance Exam from 1869

NYTimes’ “The Choice” blog has an interesting piece titled “Remembering When College Was a Buyer’s Bazaar” which contrasts university admissions policies and practices between the late 1800s to now.

For example, did you know that top universities such as Harvard and Columbia used to advertise for students right up to opening day and offered entrance exams the weekend before classes started to give students every chance of taking and passing them?

And that Harvard even downplayed the difficulty of its entrance exam in advertisements, noting that of the 210 applicants who took its test in June 1869, 185 were admitted?

(Don’t ask me about my own college application process. Suffice it to say, I was deferred, wait-listed, then rejected from my top choice school. Triple rejection. Ouch.)

You can click on over to the article for advertisements from other top schools and other examples of the admissions practices of these days gone by. What really caught my attention was a PDF of the actual sample questions from the July 1869 Harvard entrance exam.

Take a look at the pages below (click to view large).

There is no chance in hell that I would have passed the Latin and Greek portions of the test. After all:

Harvard’s literature from the 1869-70 school year noted that incoming freshmen were expected to know how to write in Latin and Greek “with the accents” and needed to demonstrate knowledge of “the whole of Virgil,” Caesar’s Commentaries, and Felton’s Greek Reader or comparable texts.

The geography and history section doesn’t seem so bad — aside from question V: “Leonidas, Pausanias, Lysander.” Errr…what exactly are they asking? — I’m pretty confident that I would have done well on this section if I were to have taken the test straight out of high school.

The math section really surprised me, because…well, I suck at math and I haven’t touched anything aside from basic arithmetic since the age of 18. But I was able to figure out all the questions without hesitation. I was actually pretty proud of my aging brain.

How would you have done on this entrance exam from 1869? Is there anything that surprises you about the test?

Magic Sleepsuit Giveaway!

Remember the Magic Sleepsuit? Let’s see if this helps refresh your memory:

Baby Merlin’s Magic Sleepsuit was invented by Maureen Howard, a pediatric physical therapist and a mother of four. It was designed for babies who are approximately 3 months of age and have been swaddled, but are beginning to grow out of that stage. The Magic Sleepsuit provides babies with the cozy and secure sleep environment that they became so accustomed to with swaddling. It aids in making a positive transition into that spacious crib, and promotes back sleeping which all mothers know is the best sleep position for reducing the risk of SIDS.

We first purchased the Magic Sleepsuit when Claire was going through her “four-month wakeful” period — only napping 30 minutes at a time and waking up 5x a night. Not only were J and I exhausted, Claire was plain miserable and I was willing to try anything to help my daughter sleep better.

The first time we used the Magic Sleepsuit Claire took a 1.5 hour nap — her longest in weeks! — and she only woke up twice that night. We thought the first day was just a fluke, but for the next few days she continued to sleep better than she had for weeks and I could only credit the Sleepsuit.

I have talked about the Magic Sleepsuit in my sleep-training post and stated how it helped us wean Claire from swaddling, and how it has become an essential part of our bedtime routine as we used it as a sleep-training tool.

I have also listed the Magic Sleepsuit in my favorite baby items post because we truly believe that it helps Claire sleep better and for longer periods of time.

Well, I’ve got some fantastic news for my readers (and their friends):

Maureen has graciously offered to give one reader a FREE Magic Sleepsuit!

Even if you don’t have a baby or are not pregnant, I would highly recommend that you enter anyway, because I’m sure that you can find someone who will find the Magic Sleepsuit (a $39.95 value) super useful.

You can enter the giveaway in three different ways:

Leave a comment to this post telling us who the Sleepsuit will be for
Tweet (and leave a comment here saying you did so) the following: I just entered to win a Magic Sleepsuit — www.magicsleepsuit.com — and you can too! http://bit.ly/e9ZDvb
“Like” this post using the Facebook “Like” button at the bottom (and leave a comment here saying you did so)

Each method will grant you one separate entry, so you can increase your chances of winning by using all three methods of entry.

Please leave a valid email address (which will not be published or shared) when filling out the comment form so that I can contact you if you win.

The giveaway will end this Friday, April 15th, 2011 at 12:00pm EST. The winner will be chosen by a random number generator and be notified via email, at which point he/she will have the option of choosing the color and size of the Sleepsuit. The giveaway is valid only for U.S. residents.

Thanks for reading, and good luck!

“You know when you’re ready.”

This funny ad for the Canon 40D was published in Digital Photographer magazine back in 2008.

…Sometimes, I fear that J is thinking the same thing when he looks at me.

Via PetaPixel.

Real-Life Snail Mail

This is too stinkin’ cute not to post.

Vicki Isley and Paul Smith, researchers at UK’s Bournemouth University, have decided to take the term “snail mail” literally and created an email delivery service called Real Snail Mail.

Real Snail Mail is a web service that uses live snails to deliver email. The delivery could take years; as a matter of fact the average delivery time is 615 days, 15 hours, 37 minutes and 27 seconds.

How does it work? According to their website:

Our snails are equipped with a miniaturised electronic circuit and antenna, enabling them to be assigned messages. Your message is collected from a despatch centre at one end of their enclosure. Once associated with the tiny electronic chip on the snail’s shell your message will be carried around until the snail chances by the drop off point. Here more hardware collects your message and forwards it to its final destination.

Animal activists need not worry about the snails, as they apparently live in “Five Star Accommodations.” Each snail even has a profile, and you can see two of them below:

I would love to try the service myself, but I had some trouble figuring out how to do so via their website. Can anyone help?

Via Bit Rebels.

Geek Zodiac

I don’t put much stock in astrology or zodiacs, but I gotta give some cred to this geek zodiac, created by James Wright and designed by Josh Eckert. (Click to view large)

And because the fine print is a bit difficult to read:

† This is not to say that Ninja and Samurai are the same, only that they tend to appear around the same time and often in the same stories. And yes, Jedi Knight falls under this category (but depending on your reading, Han Solo would be either Pirate or Treasure Hunter).

* Also includes those who hunt the undead.

** “Desenrascanço (loosely translatable as “disentanglement”) is a Portuguese word used, in common language, to express an ability to solve a problem without having the knowledge or the adequate tools to do so, by use of imaginative resources or by applying knowledge to new situations.” – Wikipedia

According to it I am a spy and J would be a daikaiju. I wish I were a treasure hunter instead, because it looks the most fun out of the bunch.

Via Geek Tyrant.

Are Two Girls the Best?

People often ask us how many kids we plan on having, and our answer is: “It depends.”

J and I made a deal before we got married. J wants lots of kids. Like, enough for a full soccer team. (“But I’ll settle for a basketball team,” he says. 🙄 ) I was never sure if I wanted kids, but if I were to procreate I thought that two would be a nice number, the reason being that one would be too easy to spoil and three would be too much for me to handle.

So we compromised. Since I would be the primary caretaker of the kids, we would aim for two. But if they were the same sex, we will try for a third.

What if the third is the same gender as the first two? We’d still stop at three.

That being said, J — as the oldest male in his family’s generation — has pressure from his parents and his own Asian guy pride. “We need to have at least one boy,” he says. I roll my eyes at him. The notion that a male is needed to pass down the family line and name is outdated and pretty sexist, in my opinion (and believe me, I have pretty conservative views when it comes to male-female gender roles). I tell him that even if we end up with three girls, his brother or a cousin can have a boy and the family will have to be happy with that.

What brings up this numbers and genders talk? Well, apparently a new study shows that having two daughters will lead to the most harmonious and happy family life.

What’s particularly interesting about the study is that while two daughters may be the best, doubling that number to four daughters often leads to a whole lot of mess. In fact, parents of four daughters turned out to be the least happy with family life overall.

Here are the ‘best’ to ‘worst’ combinations of children:

Two girls
One boy and one girl
Two boys
Three girls
Three boys
Four boys
Two girls and one boy
Two boys and one girl
Three boys and one girl
Three girls and one boy
Two boys and two girls
Four girls

Innnnn-teresting! As my readers know, I come from a family of two girls. And although my sister and I didn’t exactly have the best relationship growing up (we usually just ignored each other), we’ve certainly grown a lot closer over the years. And whilst my family may have been through some difficult times, I would definitely say that my parents are generally very happy with their lives and — not to toot our own horns — their daughters.

My sister and I, before we were old enough to fight over toys and clothes

And, as I’ve mentioned before, my father has confessed to me that he longed for a son in those early years…but after having witnessed his two daughters grow up, he now says that he wouldn’t have traded it for anything. He says that his two girls have taught him to be more sensitive, generous, and a better man overall.

J, too, grew up with one younger sibling but he comes from a family of two boys. His parents certainly seem proud and happy with their sons, but my MIL has confided in me that she would have loved to have at least one girl. My in-laws have even described to me how last year, when my FIL was admitted to the hospital for a surgery, they noticed that the only visitors his neighbors received were their daughters. “And if a son happened to visit? You could tell that his wife had made him do it!” my FIL added.

Since J and I already have one daughter, I hope that our second would be a boy. Not only because I’m scared three children would be too much for me to handle, but because I get worried that if we have two girls then a boy, the boy would get too spoiled (the same would go for two boys then a girl). Besides, two girls and a boy ranks seventh on the list above.

But after reading this study, I am now more convinced that having just two girls would be totally fine too.

What are your feelings on the study? How would you say your own family life compares?

I would also like to see how only childs fit in the list.

How Men and Women See Colors

Sooooooo true!

Over the 8-year span of our relationship, I have trained myself to go the KISS (keep it simple, stupid) route when identifying colors to my other half.

And you can see how a possible trichromat as myself would find this extremely difficult.

Via HHjH.

The Broke-Ass Bride Needs Our Help

Do you know a fabulous blogger by the name of Dana LaRue? If not, you’re missing out on a whole lot of awesome.

Dana and I first met while blogging for Weddingbee. Her upbeat, can-do attitude is simply charismatic, and I was so happy to watch her start The Broke-Ass Bride which quickly turned into one of the premier wedding blogs on the ‘net.

Long-time readers may remember that two years ago, J and I went through an extremely difficult period when we lost our first baby just as I entered the second trimester. What made the loss even more bitter was that our insurance company refused to cover the costs of the surgery that I required from the miscarriage because they considered pregnancy a pre-existing condition, leaving us with a $8,000+ hospital bill.

The event now seems to have occurred aeons ago, but I still remember how supportive Dana was of the entire ordeal. She was especially sympathetic because she herself had been through medical insurance hell and back. And while I never got the chance to thank her in person for her advice and support, that gratitude never left my heart.

Now, Dana needs our help.

At age 19, Dana was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease called Uveitis. Basically, her immune system confuses her eyes for foreign objects and relentlessly attacks them, causing chronic inflammation, visual disturbances and blurriness. It is incurable and will cause blindness if left untreated.

She also has a very rare deep-tissue form of a disease called Granuloma Annulare, causing a different type of inflammation in her foot, for which she had surgery last year. It is so rare that she is unable to find a doctor who knows how to treat it moving forward.

Dana has had 11 surgeries in the past 9 years to control these diseases and their side effects.

And sadly, just last month her left eye came out of remission, she learned the devastating news that she will need a 12th surgery.

Dana’s surgeries and ongoing care (even with health insurance) have left piles of bills and medical debt, and she is now at a point where, without help, she cannot pay for her medical care.

Dana and her husband Hunter (aka The Fresh Hubby) have been encouraged by many to hold a fundraiser, but asking for money outright isn’t their style. As a result, they have launched a FUNraiser called Dishing for Dana:

The Plan:
♥ We’re compiling beloved comfort food recipes and the stories behind them from the most bad-ass bloggers and beyond… available in varying forms, in exchange for donations to my medical care.
♥ There are incentives for varying levels of donation, which you can learn about here.
♥ The recipes, photos and stories will be teased here on our Dishing for Dana blog, and once a donation is processed, a password to access the full recipes will be released to each donor.

The Goal:
♥ $13,000 to cover my current medical bills
♥ $6,032 to cover our health insurance premiums for the remainder of 2011
♥ $2,000 to donate to the American Autoimmune Related Disease Association toward helping others with autoimmune disease
For a total minimum of $22,000.

Note that this does not include the costs that will be related to my upcoming surger(ies) and ongoing care, nor for prescriptions or post-surgical supplies such as gauze and tape for my eye patch, or prescribed drugs to aid the healing process and protect from further inflammation and prevent infection, etc.

The Details:
♥ You can donate any amount you choose, no minimum, no rules. Because every quarter is a quarter more than we had yesterday. It all adds up.
♥ We will donate 10% of all proceeds up to our goal, to the American Autoimmune Related Disease Association, so every dollar contributed not only goes toward my medical care, but also toward researching a cure to benefit everyone with autoimmune disease.
♥ Anything raised in excess of the goal will be split 50/50 with the AARDA – our portion of which will be saved in a dedicated, interest-bearing account toward any future surgeries and ongoing medical care.

If you are able and willing to help by donating a recipe, $$$, or even your talents, please visit Dishing for Dana for more information!

Thank you for taking the time to read this. Your support and generosity are greatly appreciated!

Baby Got Back for a Reason!

Redditor cbexton asks,

I like big butts and I cannot lie, but is there some evolutionary reason as to why?

Which gives rise to perhaps the greatest Reddit thread ever. Take a look at some of these hilarious responses:

When a girl walks in with an itty-bitty waist and a round thing in your face you get vital evolutionary information that acts as a fairly accurate indicator of overall health. And sprung. You also get sprung.

My anaconda don’t want none unless you have a high likelihood of producing healthy offspring with a minimal chance of genetic disabilities, hun.

So ladies (yeah!) ladies (yeah!) You wanna advertise fertility? (hell yeah!)

Then turn around, stick it out, even other women have to admit that you appear to have the necessary physical attributes to produce many healthy offspring.

Cause I’m long, and I’m strong, and I have a genetic impulse to pass my hereditary traits on.

I can keep going and going but I’ll stop here. 🙂 Go check out the entire thread if you’re in need of some laughter.

P.S. — Did you know that when Claire developed colic, my first successful attempt at calming her involved my playing “Baby Got Back” loudly, rapping and dancing along while bouncing her to the rhythm of the song?