~o(O)o~

The following weekend, they go to visit Peter’s granny. Peter was fine with this until his mother tells him that he’ll be wearing his pink dress. Peter pleaded with her to let him go in his boy clothes. “I don’t know how many times I have to tell you Peter.” he mother stated, “Dresses are boys clothes these days.”

“But please mum, not the pink one… can’t I wear my blue one instead?”

“Well you wore that for your party last week.” his mother replied. “I didn’t buy it just to hang in your wardrobe.”

“But… I’ll wear it next week, please can I wear my blue one?”

His mother sighed impatiently. “Peter.” she said sternly, “Pink dress, whether you like it or not.. I’m sure your cousin Michael doesn’t sulk and moan every time he has to wear a dress.”

“Ohhhhhhh!” he exclaimed before taking his pink dress off its hanger. Once he was dressed his mother told him how nice he looked, before completing his outfit with a pink headband. “Do have to wear a headband too?” he asked.

“Well you want to look nice don’t you?” his mother replied.

“Not really.”

“Well I want you to look nice.” she stated as she arranged his hair around his headband. She then told him to close his eyes before spraying his entire head with hairspray.

“What’s that?” It stinks!”

“It’s to keep your hair in place… so make sure you don’t touch it.”

It was an hours drive to his grandmother’s house and Peter felt like a meringue as he sat in the passenger seat with his petticoats piled on his lap. His grandmother told him he looked very pretty, but added that it was very strange seeing boys in dresses instead of girls. “I think it’s a shame that girls don’t wear dresses any more… I used to like wearing dresses but your mother never did.” his grandmother reminisced. “I had to fight her into a dress every time I wanted her to look nice.”

“Just as I’m having to battle Peter in to his.” his mother replied. “It’s worth it though, he does look adorable.” she added, before showing her mother some photographs from his birthday party the previous weekend.. “You remember James and Michael?” she said, pointing them out. “And these are two of Peter’s friends from school, and that’s Nigel, a boy from down the road.”

“Oh my… they all look so nice.” his granny said as she flicked through the photographs. “Well now is as good a time as any to give you your birthday present.” she said, pulling a bundle of gift wrapped parcels from besides her chair. “I do hope you like them.”

Peter said thank you as he took the bundle; wrapped in pale pink paper with a bright pink bow around each parcel. He untied the ribbon of the first and smallest gift before removing the paper.

“Oh that’s very nice!” his mother said as Peter unwrapped a nightdress. It was white with pink trim and came with a matching pair of knickers. “You haven’t got a nightie have you?”

Being in polite mode, Peter thanked his grandmother and told her that he liked it very much, before unwrapping the next gift. This time it was a pair of white satin slippers, each with a single pink bow. Peter forced a smile and said thank you, before unwrapping the final gift; a pale pink dressing gown with white trim that perfectly complemented his slippers and nightie. Again, Peter did the right thing and said thank you.

His granny said he was welcome, and added, “It’s a good job you like pink isn’t it.”

Peter wanted so much to put her straight, but that would have been rude. He is after all wearing a pink dress with pink shoes and has a pink headband in his hair, so he can hardly start claiming otherwise. Peter just smiled and blushed.

“So what else did you get for your birthday?” she asked.

Peter told her about the Nintendo Wii3, the books and CDs he’d been given, along with the bits and bobs his guests hade given him. And with a little prompting from his mother, the blue dress he wore for his party, his pyjamas, his new duvet set and the Hello Kitty bath set which made him smell nice. “She must think I’m such a sissy.” he thought as he pretended to like each and every one of them.

Granny couldn’t stop looking at her grandson. She’d never seen him in a dress before and in her day boys were positively discouraged from wearing dresses, even if they wanted to. “The poor thing looks just as uncomfortable as his mother did when she was a girl…” his grandmother thought, “…she hated looking pretty and wearing dresses in equal measure.” As far as his grandmother was concerned, dresses were just something pretty that girls wore, but for his mother they were at best humbling and at worst humiliating. Quite when they became considered a symbol of subservience his grandmother wasn’t sure, but that shift in perception was responsible for them slipping out of popularity with her daughter’s generation… that she was sure of.