apr 19, 2008 - Tennis Racquet Debacle
Description:
During this time in my life, I was on the school tennis team. My mom and I went one day to buy me a new tennis racquet. The salesperson, which I can only describe as the oldest, whitest man ever, handed me a pink racquet with a purple grip. Once I noticed what brand it was, knowing that it was not the best quality, I pointed his direction to a better one, which happened to be blue. He responded, "girls like you don't want a dark blue". This is not too surprising of an occurrence. Toys are gendered, especially the colors of them. Now, I know a tennis racquet is not a toy, but the idea still applies. Toys for boys are red, black, brown, and gray. Toys for girls are pastel, pink, or purple (Auster & Mansbach, 2012). I, a young girl, would, of course, prefer to have a pink one with a purple grip! It was not until this moment that I had felt that my things needed to be gendered. As I explained earlier, I was a tomboy and played with action figures. However, my parents were very supportive and really did not care. They did not assume I wanted a pink and purple Barbie jeep, but would instead let me choose my own toys. In fact, my first bike was a Schwinn Stingray, and I have attached the exact model that I had, flames and all.
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Mary Nell's Autoethnography
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