Why pink seems to be the only 'girly' colour?

[mamusia]

It so annoys me that I can't get 'girly' toys for my DD that are not pink. I wanted to buy little moses basket for her doll and they only come in pink.
My doughter doesn't have colour preferences yet(only 16 mnth old) so it should be up to me- and i would like her to like all the colours. Don't want my house to turn into 'pink princess land' (but obviously it will be up to her when she is older) so I don't want to encourage her to choose pink BUT IT SEEMS THAT SOMEBODY MADE THAT CHOICE FOR US!!!! It drives me mad!!!! Can't little girls love green or orange or blue?

I have alays bought DD the primary colour version of the toy not the pink one. This is more difficult for clothes though. I want her to wear feminine trousers and skirts, ut not necessarily pink.

I was agnostic about pink before I had a girl. Now I can't stand it. I suppose it's a revolt against ELC/toys r us/whoever dictating that I must decide on a male or female version of everything.
It's a shame because I expected more of ELC.

Having issues with finding baby sleepsuits in Primary colours. It appears that "unisex" means white/cream. Can't even find some yellow/lime stuff! Have just bought some primary coloured ones in Boots, hung in the boys section of course!

Even the Happyland stuff in ELC which is quite happily multi coloured, now comes in pink. Whose child is it that says they don't like it in those colours? Where do they do their market research?

(Dilemma I have at the mo, is DD wants a washing line for her birthday. Pink one is a fiver cheaper than the nice red/purple one I've located. Which do I choose?)

and since it amuses you, yours for only £18

www.elc.co.uk/toy/illuminated-globe-pink/

the pink globe

We must be in a minority cos this stuff seems to sell - although the warehouse full of the crap at ELC may speak otherwise!

Someone bought me this for my DS for Christmas - I was horrified to see it in the shop a month later in a pink version! It is utterly ridiculous - what is so boyish about the original one, it's just strong primary colours.

But I do have a couple of friends who make a real fuss about their sons playing with pink toys or using anything pink - it's utterly pathetic and drives me insane. Poor DS will end up in a dress at this point just so his militant mum can make a statement about gender stereotyping!!

ug ug ug (still on the pink globe!)
I like the bit underneath that says "How does this help my child?" - by reinforcing gender stereotypes. ARRGH.

My goodness - I don't hate pink - i like it as much as other colours, maybe slightly less, BUT I DO HATE THAT PINK GLOBE- it's just ridiculous

at the revolting pink globe. The 'boy' globe is properly geographical and the 'girl' globe has babyish pictures of animals on it instead. That is so poor. I might write a huffy letter.

YANBU - I hate the blue/pink divide and I have a DS. ELC do seem particularly bad for this. Why does stuff like a toy guitar have to be either pink or blue only? It's such cynical marketing. I am glad, though, to hear there is a glut of the pink stuff in the warehouse!

Let's all write to ELC and say we'll be shopping elsewhere because of their crappy dumbed-down pink globe. That's really annoying.

We probably should write and complain to ELC.

Sorry PeedOffWithNits, I never replied- DD hes plenty of boys toys but she likes her dolls and buggys and stuff /andbut I don't see a reason why those should be pink

The globe thing is awful. My dd has a unisex bike - as in, they only make one version, and it is blue, red and green. She is nearly 3. We have been stopped by 2 primary aged children asking why she is on a boys' bike, and one asked if she is really a girl. I am so sad that the brainwashing is so complete so early.

!!! How can i contact ELC. U can't even email them - there only seems to be FAQ thingy!!! Do I have to actually write a letter?

That is what worries me notevenamousie - my DS age 7 has those ideas too

oh shit dont link to this thread id be sacked!

ok

There should be a contact form on the website. I complained about some Happyland packaging last Christmas which contained the immortal line "Mr Barley is a Geography Teacher, Mrs Barley keeps the house clean and tidy"!

My ! No ! This is going too far - clean and tidy! F me! I cannot believe it! Is it 50s or something??!!

I did find that form now and i will write

i generally ebay for aqua and red. we buy mucho Matthew Williamson from ebay.

smug<

for kit...well i go for unisex, esp as DS will use most of it.
I am generally very pleased when DD goes to playgroup and the others ar dresed in pink top & trousers and she is in a proper bright colour.

But you see - my problem is that i don't want to be pushed on the margin and have to shop around to find what i want. I want it all in shops! I don't like boys section and girls section - i want to choose buggy from a sectin of different coloured buggys and car from a section of different coloured cars!

"some Happyland packaging last Christmas which contained the immortal line "Mr Barley is a Geography Teacher, Mrs Barley keeps the house clean and tidy"!"

I took my 4yo niece to a play area last week, it was almost impossible to keep track of her, as not only was every girl there wearing pink - it was precisely the same shade of dark pink. I resolved to always dress my own DD in bright orange, green, yellow, red etc..

at the pink globe and at mrs Barley

I HATE pink! Especially the horrible, pastel sugary-sickly pink that clothes/toys/bedroom accessories for little girls seem to be made of.

Fortunately I have a boy, and I LOVE blue

I must say that all the gender stereotyping with colours does drive me mad - everything seemed to just come in pale blue for my wee boy when he was small. I switched him to bright primary colours as soon as I was able (to my mum's horror, until she realised it looked much nicer!) The pink for girls thing does seem really ridiculous these days and VTech seem to have jumped on the bandwagon. I remember when I bought a twin pack of dummies for my son in a hurry and one of them was pink - the looks we would get from people when he was using it!