The next day, when Josie was shown around the nursery she would be attending, a table covered in cars was described specifically as "the boys' corner". One of these boys then chose a flashing torch, in pink, for himself, to which the stallholder responded: "Shall I get you that in blue?" The boy, aged about five, readily agreed to the swap. On the first day, they went to a pantomime with a toy stall, where Josie's older male cousins directed her straight towards the sort of item supposedly beloved of small girls: a fluffy pink tiara. The results were tweeted under the title Baby Gender Diary, and Ball, a broadcast journalist who lives in London, couldn't believe how much there was to write about. They wanted to record the moments when their children were made aware of gender stereotypes when they were directed towards a view of the world in which girls and boys inhabit separate, rigid spheres of pink and blue – the first sphere passive, pretty and gentle, the second aggressive, active and strong. Their daughter Josie was three and their son Clem three months old. T hree years ago, while she was on maternity leave, Ros Ball and her partner, James, began a diary of their children's lives.
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