Little girl's rant against pink toys

[FrizzyFrazzled]

I am a bit of a lurker on these boards, but I thought everyone here might appreciate this little girl complaining about pink toys being marketed to girls and superhero stuff to boys.. I think she is fantastic! www.youtube.com/​watch?v=viQph2vuHgs

LINK DOESNT WORK

The obvious solution is buy "Boys" toys and the demand for pink fluffy toys will go down.
Looking at the way the little girl spoke makes me wonder how much coaching she's had to draw these conclusions.

The thing is there is nothing inherently wrong with pink, or any other color. The problem is that people become limited in their choices when things become gender linked.

Dd will not wear boy colors (her phrase ) but is happily playing a long intricate game of Pokemon and star wars with two of her best friends, both boys

This clip was referenced on a R4 prog this afternoon in a more general piece about Hamleys, Lego and gender sterotyping of toys. Poor old Lego are trying to attract more model-building girls to their products.... presumably because market research says 'Star Wars', 'Pirates of the Caribbean' and 'Castles' sets aren't appealing to enough of them... and is getting some flak for their product development. Then again, when all you could get was gender-neutral Lego bricks, I spent all my time building little houses.

Then again, when all you could get was gender-neutral Lego bricks, I spent all my time building little houses.
Lol! I loved lego as a child but, since playing with it with my 2 boys, I've realised that I only ever used to build houses! I also had a lego kitchen.....

It's easy to criticise but you'd have to assume that, Lego being the massive international success that it is, the new lines have been thoroughly test-marketed to their target audience.... focus groups, prototypes, etc... and the response was more positive for the doll-shaped characters than it was for the existing shapes, which always look to me like the late Terry Scott.

Certainly men and women have different colour perception. It's not the discrimination. It's the Nature. Why marketeers shouldn't use the Nature?

Sacagawea, there's no scientific evidence to show males and females have any "natural" preference for particular colours. There's alot of pseudo scientific reports that make the headlines, but it's a load of bunkum. Have a gander at the oft quoted here "Delusions of Gender" by Cordelia Fine.

Growing up, my favourite colour was most definitely blue. I don't remember any girls having pink or even purple as a favourite colour in the 60's or 70's. Gender demarcation by colour in toys is a very, very recent phenomenon. Before, Lego could sell one type of bricks to all children. Now, if a family has both boys and girls, they can sell them TWO wholly different sets, so double those profits. Same goes for every other game or toy made in separate girls and boys versions.

I liked the clip and incidentally, a friend's dd who is 6 told me almost exactly the same thing when I saw her before Christmas, completely unprompted. Her and her sister's room and toybox are a riot of primary colours, with very little pink. They are both very content, confident children who so far at least, don't seem to feel constrained in what they can do because they are girls. The eldest is picking up on these "you can't do/wear/play with/think/be that because you are a girl," business and clearly finds it very frustrating.

sacagewa, the only colour perception difference i know of in men and women is a tendency to colour blindness.

THAT is nature. Marketing is capitalising on nurture.

love it. I have always hated pink stuff. Thank goodness I grew up in the late 70's early 80's when this colour fascism was less prevalent. If I ever get a DD, there will be a pink ban until she actually asks for it.