Hoping to recycle a used girl’s bike into a gift for a young boy, I decided to see what I could do to convert what was a very pink and frilly bicycle into something meaner, tougher and more ‘street’.
The end result, following a bit of black, matte spray paint and some duct tape pleased me. I left the tires pink, not only as a nod to the bike’s heritage, but also as an acknowledgment that we should not let our preconceived notions of gender and color go unchecked.
2 responses
1 mark // Aug 24, 2010 at 1:44 pm
I am not sure why but I really got a kick out of this post. Maybe because it reminds me of my laughable efforts of trying to be a great dad, and never feeling like I will get there, but really trying hard. Maybe the fact that our parental concerns regarding gender roles, never really matters to a kid and in the end things always work out. Maybe because I know what a hack Liam is at home/mechanical repair work and I like to imagine the effort and pride he must have taken in this job, which was probably not fully appreciated by the young boy.
Anyways, thanks for the post.
2 Liam Dempsey // Aug 25, 2010 at 5:03 am
@ Mark,
Ha-ha! You’re absolutely right on how my efforts at quality workmanship and non-gender bias were ignored. Upon seeing the bike for the first time, the boy’s immediate reaction was:
“Wheels pink. They supposed to be black. You paint them black?”
I think the boy might also have misinterpreted my efforts when he explained a few days later that he was going to paint his sister’s toy black so that it would be his. Painting something black is, apparently, a way to claim ownership.
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