, "I was hit by this deluge of pink. Then, at friends' houses, you'd walk into a
boy's bedroom, and it would just be blue and navy, and full of cars and Action
Men. I found that when I raised this – even with really liberal parents – they
would say, 'But boys and girls are just different. She just LOVES pink.' Or,
'It's such a pity that he doesn't play with dolls, but he just doesn't get it.'
They would be ­saying this, sort of bemoaning it, but ­endlessly
reinforcing [gender] ­stereotypes in an almost unconscious way . . . I'd
hear things like, 'Well, he wanted to do ballet, but he'd be the only
boy in the class, so obviously he couldn't do it,' and you'd think, 'Why
obviously?'."