Any colour your like, so long as it's pink

There is no denying that I have a lovely baby girl. She has strawberry blond hair (like the Boy), bright blue eyes and is cute as a button. Other than a slight double chin (also like the Boy) she is clearly a girl and pretty damn gorgeous to boot.

However, society seems to have decided that as I have a girl she should be almost exclusively dressed in pink. I am not a big fan of pink. Other than some LK Bennet pink shoes (all rather mini mouse and fun to wear to difficult meetings) I do not have a single item in pink. When I was captain of the college rowing team (college colours being pink and black) I even went so far as to ensure the only part of our rowing kit that was pink was a small pink logo discretely on the chest of an otherwise entirely black rowing lycra.

Two days ago it became evident that we only have summer clothes for Eve so I popped her in a taxi to M&S to buy some more long sleeved suits. It was our first trip out by ourselves (no nanny or Boy) and it went very well. However, I was disgusted when I got to the M&S baby section to find that I had two options of colours - pink or blue. The damn display was even colour coded (blue to the left, pink to the right). There was no yellow, green, beige. If you wanted to buy anything in a size of up to 1 year old, it had to be pink or blue. I picked the least offensive items, with the least pink, and fled.

Why, oh why, am I supposed to affirm my child's gender by way of her wardrobe? Is it to help aged Aunts recognise what gender you have, or as colour coding for passers by so they can attribute a gender? Why is it assumed that parents will want to colour code their children?

The Boy, in rebellion, has bought her two blue suits, a blue hat and blue mittens.