Should The World Of Toys Be Gender Free? (teens, playing, son)
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Pink has always been a "traditional" color for girls, and blue has always been a "traditional" color for boys. Some people LIKE tradition. Some people don't. And for that reason, I'm glad there is still a choice. You don't like pink, fine. Get purple instead. But don't tell me I can't pick pink for my god-daughter just because the idea is offensive to you.
This is actually not true (and even today, pink is a boy color in Japan)
But from the 1890s onward, boys' and girls' clothing styles started to diverge, with boys dressed in trousers or knickers at progressively earlier ages. Jo Paoletti of the University of Maryland, a longtime specialist on the topic, reviewed more than 500 descriptions and images of children's clothing appearing in print between 1890 and 1920 and notes a rapid "masculinization" of boys' wear, for reasons that remain obscure.
As part of this differentiation, there seems to have been an effort to establish characteristic colors for girls and boys. But it took decades to develop a consensus on what those colors were. For years one camp claimed pink was the boys' color and blue the girls'. A 1905 Times article said so, and Parents magazine was still saying it as late as 1939. Why pink for boys? Some argued that pink was a close relative of red, which was seen as a fiery, manly color. Others traced the association of blue with girls to the frequent depiction of the Virgin Mary in blue.
The tradition may be changing, but when I lived in Evanston in the 70s and my kids were little, I saw lots of Japanese moms who were in Evanston with husbands going to Northwestern and it was the boy babies who wore pink. I also had an Asian boy who was 3 in my preK class who often wore pink and who brought his barbie playhouse on wheels when he was being dropped off. The gender stereotypes were different with these parents.
BTW-all three of my sons LOVED housekeeping toys and they are really masculine all boy type boys.
I'm curious why this was added to your post. Is there some belief that boys that like to play with housekeeping/kitchen type toys are not masculine all boy types?
The tradition may be changing, but when I lived in Evanston in the 70s and my kids were little, I saw lots of Japanese moms who were in Evanston with husbands going to Northwestern and it was the boy babies who wore pink. I also had an Asian boy who was 3 in my preK class who often wore pink and who brought his barbie playhouse on wheels when he was being dropped off. The gender stereotypes were different with these parents.
The definition of what is appropriate for genders varies by each culture however.
I'm curious why this was added to your post. Is there some belief that boys that like to play with housekeeping/kitchen type toys are not masculine all boy types?
There definitely seems to be such a belief. I did not start it either.
Have any of these people watched little kids play? Girls want to be a "mommy", and they send the "Daddy" off to work. The boys like to play with guns, even in a daycare with no violent toys, they turn Barbie dolls into guns.
They need to make the world gender nuetral, then the kids will emulate those roles.
Have any of these people watched little kids play? Girls want to be a "mommy", and they send the "Daddy" off to work. The boys like to play with guns, even in a daycare with no violent toys, they turn Barbie dolls into guns.
They need to make the world gender nuetral, then the kids will emulate those roles.
There are obviously going to be toys that are more appealing to specific genders. I think the question arises when it applies to everything across the board. Why would legos, science kits, hiking gear, board games be modified to appeal to a specific gender?
There are obviously going to be toys that are more appealing to specific genders. I think the question arises when it applies to everything across the board. Why would legos, science kits, hiking gear, board games be modified to appeal to a specific gender?
I was visiting my adult daughter over New Year's, and her sister-in-law was there with her 15-month-old little girl. We gave her a baby doll to play with. She said, "No!" loudly, and flung the doll across the room. Her mother said, "That's what she always does - she hates dolls."
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