Tweet of the week goes to Chloe Elizabeth who says, 'Oh my god you're so close to 100,000
I remember when you had only 10,000. So exciting, congrats Cristen Conger.' Thank you Chloe
Elizabeth for watching even when I only had 10,000 subscribers when I was just a little
YouTube baby and now I'm like a YouTube toddler still pooping my pants but almost walking.
This week on Stuff Mom Never Told You I kicked off with nails. A lot of you have asked why
women paint their fingernails and now there's an entire video explaining the whole thing.
So be sure to watch it and like it if you haven't already. Then the week got menstrual.
On Wednesday I talked about is PMS a myth? Then on Friday I cleared up 9 menstruation
myths which I ran across while researching for PMS because it turns out that there is
so much misunderstanding out there about how our periods work so be sure to watch it even
if you are a fella who doesn't get periods it can be educational for you as well. Now
it's time for Ask Cristen in which I ask Cristen that is myself some questions actually you
ask them to me. Thanks to everybody who watched and commented on last week's Ask Cristen video,
'Why are women expected to sit "like a lady"?' I had no idea how much testicle talk that
video would generate. neeneko said, 'Speaking as a male who does sit with ankles crossed
together I can comment that yeah, we do get flack for it. I would also like to comment
on the "squished male bits", learning to cross your legs without hurting anything is pretty
trivial in the same way that sitting on a horse (or motorcycle or whatever) without
squishing anything is easy.' This is definitely stuff mom never told me about testicles. Jonathan
Warren also said, 'I think I am the only guy I know who sits with crossed legs. As far
as I'm aware I do it because it's one of the easiest and more comfortable seating positions
for me. Many of my guy friends have asked me "doesn't that feel painful?" because I
assume the legs would squish the private parts. To which I simply reply'--ohhh! That's not
what he replies, Jonathan Warren simply replies 'no'. I just nearly leapt out of my chair
because a curtain moved. Oh my god. Now onto this week's Ask Cristen question from person
Phillip. 'Why do people signify the color pink with girls?' As a least one commenter
pointed out there was a study that came out in 2007 that got a ton of attention. It proposed
a scientific basis for women innately liking pink and men innately liking blue. What these
researchers proposed is that way, way back in our hunter-gatherer days women were tasked
with the gathering which would included seeking out ripened fruits and berries and what color
do we often associate with ripened fruit and berries? Red and other reddish hues. They
might also pay attention to redness in their children's cheeks which could be a sign of
illness and fever. What about the blue? The neuroscientists who conducted this study proposed
that men as the hunters would have payed more attention to say blue skies which would have
been indicative of good hunting weather. They also would have kept their eyes peeled for
the blue of water where the could have gone to get yeah water and also catch fish to then
feed their families. While that theory is certainly compelling and perhaps the reason
I'm wearing a red shirt today, it doesn't help explain why pink for girls, blue for
boys didn't become a thing at least in the United States until the 1940s. Up until the
1910s it was customary for both baby girls and baby boys to wear exactly the same thing.
Take this adorable baby photo from 1884 when you have this 2 and a half year old who is
wearing the customary white gown that both boys and girls would wear and also long hair
because at that time, a boy's hair would not have been cut until age 6. That my friends
is none other than a baby President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. It wasn't until into the
1910s that some clothing catalogues and other publications started suggesting that, 'well
if you want to dress your child in something other than white, which is very practical
because you can simply bleach it to keep it clean, put a boy in pink and put a girl in
blue. Say what? Take for instance this quote from a trade publication from June 1918 which
said, 'The generally accepted rule is pink for the boys and blue for the girls. Pink
being a more decided and stronger color is more suitable for the boy while blue which
is more delicate and dainty is prettier for the girl. Why then in the 1940s did it switcheroo?
Essentially retailers told parents that hey, if you're having a girl, buy pink. If you're
having a boy buy blue. What does that mean for the retailer? They can sell more stuff.
So while that 2007 study on hunter-gatherers is certainly thought-provoking to me what's
even more thought-provoking is how in our modern day culture at least this whole pink
for girls, blue for boys thing was really just the product of the rise of mass media
and also clothing retailers telling us ultimately what to wear. Now I want to know what you
think about this whole pink-blue divide. Are you guy who likes pink and a girl who likes
blue? Let me know in the comments below and as always, ask me your questions so I can
give you some answers.