construction paper

Today we are working on color experiment collages with colored paper. We have red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, purple, and pink paper on the table. Lola looks through the paper...





















Lola: Hey! There are only boy colors here!
Bianca: What are boy colors?
Lola: I don't know.
Chance: Oh I know! Boys like them! Boys like yellow, green, and blue. Those colors are actually girl colors too. Like, my mom likes blue -- it's her favorite color. I just say it's a boy color, but it's actually not because girls like it too.

Assigning gender to color is pretty complicated -- as Lola's uncertainty about "boy colors" reveals -- but it continues to be a prominent way for children to conceptualize society and understand our culture. When Chance realizes that he reflexively calls blue a "boy color" even though "it's actually not," he demonstrates an awareness of his desire to categorize as well as an awareness that gender is a construction.