Kate Middleton Orders ‘Posh Pink’ Paint Samples — Girl On The Way, Or Just Gender Stereotyping?


Kate Middleton has reportedly ordered three samples of an expensive designer paint, described as “posh” by royal-watchers, for Amner Hall, the country mansion she shares with her husband, Prince William, on the Royal Family’s Sandringham estate in Norfolk.

But it wasn’t the price of the paint that made news for the legions of fans intensely focused on the imminent delivery of Kate Middleton’s Royal Baby The Second, reportedly due any day now, but the color — pink.

Or, more precisely, three separate shades of pink, created specially by the upscale interior design firm Annie Sloan.

In the popular mind, and according to traditional gender stereotypes, pink equals baby girl, an equation that has led the British media to declare case closed on the seemingly endless guessing game regarding the gender of the royal baby. It’s a girl!

Or is it?

First of all, though the media in England reported that the three cans of interior house paint were indeed delivered to the plush Amner Hall, about 120 miles northeast of London — where Kate Middleton and Prince William recently relocated as the birth of their second child grows imminent — there has been no confirmation as to the room for which the paints are intended, or even that Kate Middleton herself ordered the sample cans.

While it seems like a pretty good assumption that the royal couple would be converting one of the mansion’s 10 bedrooms to a nursery for the new arrival, no one has made any official statement confirming that likelihood either.

And even if the paints were indeed ordered for a nursery, would it be out of line for a contemporary young couple such as Kate Middleton and Prince William to decorate their child’s bedroom according to some principle other than centuries-old gender stereotypes?

The color pink in believed by many psychologists to create a feeling of peace and tranquility, and an instinctive sense of being loved and protected. Blue, the color traditional for boys, on the other hand, has the effect of coolness and a sense of being emotionally close off.

Wouldn’t Kate and William want their baby to feel loved and accepted, regardless of the child’s gender?

Either way, according to the reports, the three shades of pink that Kate Middleton is reportedly interested in are: Henrietta, a “beautiful rich complex pink with a hint of lilac,” Antoinette, a “soft pale pink with a hint of brown” and Emile, a “warm soft aubergine color with pink and red undertones,” the ritzy Annie Sloan catalog reportedly states.

[Image: Chris Jackson/Getty Images]

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