Boys, Toys and the Fight Against Pink

Mackenzie Willis
November 17th, 2015

Abstract: Toys, Boys and the Fight Against Pink

This paper will question and challenge traditional gender-roles set aside for boys in the
world of play, assessing the capitalist society that continues to tell boys what colours are
suited to their gender to what play they have to engage in. Discussions revolving around
play influenced by Disney Toys and how companies such as these are influencing children
on a grand scale to fall into a cookie cutter image of what is a boy and what is a girl. This
paper will also discuss the ideology that parents of boys force upon their sons, unlike that
of daughters; this will be brought to question. Finally this paper will dissect the colour
pink discuss what happens to boys who abide by the rules of stereotypical play, and to the
boys who are encouraged to play with toys or that are supposed to be just for girls,
concluding with the use of domestic and gender-neutral play and its benefits in children
as a whole.

Toys, Boys and The Fight Against Pink

This paper will question and challenge traditional gender-roles set aside for boys in the
world of play, assessing the capitalist society that continues to tell boys how to behave,
from what colours they embody to what play they have to engage in. Boys have been
given rigorous limitations on appropriate colour and play and the repercussions of these
limitations are reflected in their indoctrination into the patriarchal society of today. This
un-nurturing mentality has been a reccuring notion for generations and is one that
continues to thrive through parents today, who are too afraid to let their sons explore
alternate gender-roles in fear of them growing up to be feminine and unmanly. When
playing, boys must abide by a certain set of rules that are full of building, G.I. Joes and
mostly the colour blue; unlike girls who are praised if they are one of the boys, and are
allowed to explore beyond pink into shades of purple. Toys interact with boys at a young
age and influence who they are and will grow up to be. The world is not divided up into
black and white or pink and blue, there are many shades in between and it is the job of
society, mass media, and parents to assure that young boys will be given the opportunity
to decide who and what they want to be even if it is through such a small thing such as
play.
Media markets that are directed towards children control and enforce gendered
stereotypes stating what is appropriate for boys and what is appropriate for girls (Auster,
2012). The Disney store website is divided into two sections: boys and girls. There is no
section that is just toys for children or even toys for boys and for girls although there

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is some crossover in both categories (Auster, 2012). In Carol Austers paper on the
Disney store and their website written in 2012, she states that:
Despite this emphasis on the gendered marketing of toys, both
boys and girls asked Santa for sports equipment, male dolls, and
educational, musical, and art toys), and it was games and
building toys that appeared in gender-neutral commercials.
Nelson (2000) also found a few Halloween costumes and sewing
patterns that were gender-neutral, but they tended to be for
infants. In sum, although there were gender-neutral toys that
were equally appealing to boys and girls, girls were more likely
than boys to have available to them a wider variety of
acceptable activities and colors and engage in gender crossing
(Auster, 2012)
This passage puts emphasis on the fact that boys face harder social stigmas when it
comes to gender stereotyping in the toy and play world, even if there is a market for
neutrality. Why is it that the media displays such acceptance of girls neutrality, but not
boys? Laurie Petrou, an associate professor asks similar questions in her TedTalk
Breaking the Mold regarding feminism and boys in the play world. Petrou discusses her
own boys experiences with gendered play and media marketing when referencing the
Mattel Toys Little Mommy website which slogans, every little girl wants to pretend shes
a mommy Nurturing play come to life Petrou, in contrast to this trademark asks I
have little boys that sometimes like to pretend that they are little daddys. Isnt that
nurturing play come to life? (Petrou, 2013) Gender socialization is undoubtedly

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influenced by media and the Internet and has an evident impact on children, and
specifically boys who are given less room than girls in the support of exploration, which
in its entirety has an evident impact on children during the development of socialization
(Auster, 2012).
Parents themselves control what their children get to play with, and what the
children get to play with is a reflection on the parents opinion on what is suited for boys
or what is suited for girls. Parents are the ones who go on to the toy websites and
purchase the toys for their children, being totally in control of what the child is allowed to
play with at the end of the day. (Auster, 2012) In many cultures around the world parents
have colour preferences for girls or boys and how those colours represent their childs
gender; in most western cultures girls are represented by pink and boys are represented
by blue. Parents of boys tend to have a more rigid enforcement of gender stereotyped
behaviour for boys, who are more pressured to conform to prescribed behaviours
(Karniol, 2011). Parents consistently prevent their sons from using female-oriented toys
and female-oriented colours (Karniol, 2011). It is apparent that parents of boys have a
fear that their sons will grow up to be girly boys or even fear that their boys will grow
up to be gay (something that is assigned to a child long before toys are put into their
hands and colour onto their clothes). Laurie Petrou states:
There is a war against the princess machine. Friends and
colleagues with daughters swear off pink because as though if
[you agree] for your daughter to wear pink you are signing her
up for a life-time of limited story-lines revolving around fashion
and romance. And if you agree for your son to like pink you are

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signing him up for a lifetime of weakness and bullying. (Petrou,
2013)
In this passage she expresses once again the ideological balance
between boys and girls. After this passage she asks other parents
What are we afraid of? Are we afraid that our sons will grow to be
sensitive, expressive, loving, [and] nurturing. Although toys
themselves have an animate effect on boys, they do not control
sexuality or whether or not they will make a child weak (Petrou, 2013).
It is the responsibility of the parents to let go of a predisposed idea
that the object makes the man, and to begin to support domestic play
among boys.
Today there are two colours that divide children: pink for girls,
and blue for boys. In as recent as 1918 a Ladies Home Journal stated
that these roles were actually switched, The generally accepted rule is
pink for the boys, and blue for the girls (Auster, 2012). This statement
basically states that pink and blue today could have been any colour,
and the mentality that possesses these colours isnt real. Questioning
such knowledge, Laurie Petrou asks why is pink so toxic, (Petrou,
2013.) In a study conducted in the past 5 years 98 Israeli preschoolers
and 3rd graders were given the choice between a series of colouring
books randomized in colour (pink and blue) versus illustrations of
Batman versus Bratz Dolls. Later in the process it was found that:

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Coloured genderstereotyped versus gender-neutral illustrations
with male and female-colour crayons... More colours were used
for figures stereotypically associated with ones own gender
Boys avoided colouring the female-stereotyped figure and using
pink. Girls used fewer female-stereotyped colours for the malestereotyped figure but used both types of colour equally for the
other figures (Karniol, 2011)
These findings express boys fear against pink and things that are
feminine. Even in an area where girls are crossing over to the malestereotype of colours associated with boys, boys still have an
embedded fear against being like a girl. This undoubtedly has to do
with the association of telling a girl that she is one of the boys, and it is
a compliment, compared to telling a boy that they are being like a girl
and its an insult (Petrou, 2013). The gender-neutral children in the
study who tended to have interests and behaviours associated with the
opposite gender chose colours contrary to the gender-stereotyped
nature of colours specifically boys using pinks and purples (Kariol,
2011). This extension of the study expresses that although these
children might be gender-variant, colours and toys are still genderstereotyped, making the choice of toys and colour an expression of
ones own gender identity.
Boys are told from a young age that certain things are off limits
to them (Petrou, 2013). They are told that learning to be nurturing

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through domestic play and using the pink crayon is not masculine and
therefore is not for them. In Laurie Petrous TedTalk she says that her
older son gravitated to many things considered feminine including
dollhouses, domestic play, the colour pink, but he also gravitated
towards sports, and pirates and Star Wars, stating that In other words,
[hes] complex and [hes] human (Petrou, 2013). As a Media Maker
and a parent, Petrous words are some to live by. It is time that Media
Makers, parents, and children make the decision: colours and toys
should not be divided up into boys and girls but for children as a whole
so that children can decide for themselves who and what they want to
be or where their interests lie and how it can further their development
as a human being.

Citations: Boys, Toys and the Fight Against Pink

Auster, Carol J., and Claire S. Mansbach. The Gender Marketing of Toys: An analysis of
Color and Type of Toy on the Disney Store Website. Sex Roles 67.7 (2012): 375-388.
Print.

Karniol, Rachel. The Color of Childrens Gender Stereotypes. Sex Roles (2011): 11932. Print

Petrou, Laurie. Breaking the Mold: Laurie Petrou at TEDxTheAnnexWomen.

TED.TheAnnexWomen. Toronto. 13 Dec. 2013. Lecture.

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Pomerleau, Andre, Daniel Bolduc, Grard Malcuit, and Louise Cossette. Pink or Blue:
Environmental Gender Stereotypes in the First Two Years of Life. Sex Roles 22.5/6
(1990): 359-67. Print.