Though I have not yet journeyed into the world of parenthood, I have noticed a dilemma facing today’s parents: pink versus blue. This problem culminates in the widespread availability of inappropriate children’s toys. I am young enough to remember the array of toys I had as a child: kitchen sets, Barbie dolls, horses, strollers and so on. Without even glancing at my mug shot, anyone could reason that I was female because of the above list of toys. But what about my Hot Wheels collection, MicroMachine city, models of cars and planes and my affinity for go-cart racing?
Parents and relatives have clear expectations about children before they are born. Little boys’ rooms are swathed in blue, with stencils of dump trucks and planes on the walls. Little girls’ rooms are adorned in a carnation pink hue, with fluffy pink teddy bears and ballet slippers on the wallpaper border.
One of my professors told us that she was shopping for baby clothes late into her pregnancy, and she couldn’t decide on an outfit for her newborn to wear home from the hospital. Another young mother-to-be was nearby, so she asked her opinion. The young lady seemed appalled at the proposed yellow suit my professor had picked and promptly asked what sex the child was to be.
What I want to know is this: what in the world is so wrong with yellow? The world has far too much pink and blue as it is! We need more yellow!
The battle between pink and blue doesn’t stop after parents bring home their baby. It continues for people’s entire lives. It’s called gender stereotyping. Walk inside a Toys-R-Us, and the obvious stereotyping can’t be ignored. The toys for girls are on one side, the toys for boys on the other. The first clue of gender bias? The boys’ side is nearly twice as big as the girls’ side.
Then take a walk down the girls’ side. Everything (and I mean everything) is pink. It would be difficult to find anything blue or without shimmering heart-shaped sparkles. Almost everything has a domestic or fashion theme. Whatever happened to the “working woman” image we herald as progress in today’s society? Children apparently aren’t privy to the fact that women can do more than stay at home.
When examining the boys’ side, one discovers where all the fun toys are displayed. There are cars, bicycles, water guns, computer games, soccer balls, footballs and action figures. Even puzzles and board games are usually placed on this side of the store. Boys’ toys tend to be tougher and more imaginative than girls’ toys. Boys get spacecraft; girls get strollers. Boys get the freedom to go outside and explore; girls are encouraged to stay inside and play house.
Toys for boys are often geared toward the working world, such as firemen’s hats, police cars, stethoscopes and tiny microscopes. This is especially obvious during Halloween when boys’ costumes are job-related, and girls’ options are pretty much limited to fairies, princesses, or ballerinas, unless she wants to be a grotesque goblin or the like.
Toys for girls are still geared toward staying at home. More women today are not only entering the working world in general, but are taking high-level and high-paying positions. However, by scanning the toy aisles, it seems that we’re still training women to cook and clean and be good little housewives. Not that it’s horrible for a woman to stay home if she chooses, but why does the rest of the women in this world have to overcome the “cult of domesticity” their parents unwittingly threw at them with EasyBake Ovens and lip gloss for 4 year-olds?
Parents need to provide their children with a balance of all sorts of toys, because one of the goals of parenting should be to prepare children for the “real world.” Perhaps parents should provide their little girls with a nice new set of yellow boxing gloves so they can fight their way out of the jungle of pink.
JanaZ Hatcher is a sophomore political science major. Send comments to [email protected].