Pink and Blue: Gender, Culture, and the Health of Children

In modern pediatric practice, gender matters. From the pink-and-blue-striped receiving blankets used to swaddle newborns, to the development of sex-specific nutrition plans based on societal expectations of the stature of children, a gendered culture permeates pediatrics and children’s health throughout the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. This book provides a look at how gender has served as one of the frameworks for pediatric care in the U.S. since the specialty’s inception. Pink and Blue deploys gender-often in concert with class and race-as the central critical lens for understanding the function of pediatrics as a cultural and social project in modern U.S. history. This volume seeks to understand the dialectical relationship between gender and the medical care of children by combining a historical perspective on gender and pediatrics with analyses of current debates and controversies in pediatric practice such as pediatric transgender medicine, HPV, neonatal intensive care, and more.