Another day another hashtag campaign, this time it's about bringing attention to gender stereotyping in children.
The #StillABoy campaign has gone viral after several mothers of boys posted snaps of their little ones wearing pink, playing with 'girls' toys or dressing up in traditionally feminine fancy dress. The point of these pictures is to draw attention to the narrow definitions of masculinity we maintain in most avenues of life.
Orignally the campaign was born from children's gender-neutral designer Quirkie Kids. The owner and mum Martine Zoer was criticised for 'robbing children of their gender' Redbook reported, so decided to challenge her critics and their ideas of masculinity with the hashtag. On her website it reads 'Boys? They are made of snips, snails, and puppy dog tails. Yet boys can also be sweet and kind and caring. And yes! A boy who likes pink or plays with dolls is #StillABoy.'
When Zoer noticed other mums felt the same way, with lots posting their own pictures of their little boys along with the hashtag, she was inspired to start a dedicated Instagram account to collect all the images in one place.
Speaking to The Huffington Post Zoer said, 'I started using the hashtag #StillABoy as a way of saying, "Hey... a boy who wears pink is still a boy, just like a girl who wears blue is still a girl".'
Plenty of Zoer's followers have got involved, with one mum, sarahevans on Instagram, sharing a picture of her little one dressed up in fairy wings saying 'I like what @quirkiekids is doing with the #stillaboy campaign. Our boy wears all colors, pink included.'
[Instagram]
Here are some of our favourites...
This sweetheart who loves his dog... [Instagram]
This little boy who just loves his baby [Instagram]
This fella who is rocking his fairy wings [Instagram]
[/Instagram] And it's not just little boys Zoer is standing up for. She's simultaneously started a #StillAGirl campaign to share pictures of little girls doing 'boyish' things like wearing suits, getting mucky and enjoying playing with 'boys' toys.
So, what do you think? Should boys should be boys or is this a refreshing new stance on gender? Let us know in the comments below!
