Both genders prefer blue, according to a study done by two neuroscientists from Newcastle University. Interestingly, the results that are presented in a Time magazine article titled "Study: Why Girls Like Pink," say that researchers have known about this gender-neutral preference of blue for a while. If women and men both prefer blue, why do toy aisles look like this:
The simple answer is gender marketing. Gender marketing says girl toys are pink and boy toys are blue. Gender marketing says leave the building blocks to the boys, ladies, you need a baby doll. Gender marketing says paint your nails while us boys are saving the world in our superhero masks. However, nothing gender marketing says is true.
From chemistry sets to action figures, the toys in the boy aisle emanate strength. When you look at the flip side, it seems that the girls toys are the exact opposite. There are dolls for nurturing, play oven sets for cooking, little vacuums for cleaning--and all of them are pink. What kind of message is this sending to girls in one of their most important developmental phases of life?
Ladies can vote, now; ladies can have full time jobs; ladies are no longer required to be a housewife. It is the twenty-first century, and the opportunities for women have greatly increased, but our toys don't reflect this. One of the most prominent examples of this is the marketing of the popular toy brand LEGO. LEGOs are said to spark engineering and problem solving in children who play with them. This is an early introduction into the STEM fields. However despite their benefits as thought provoking toys, LEGO just took a giant leap backwards in regards to gender marketing. They have recently released a brand of LEGO toys called LEGO Friends. The boxes are pink and purple and are filled with the materials to build things such as cruise ships, castles, or little houses. This further widens the gap between the two genders, saying that girls can build things, but different things. They're not on the same level as boys.
When looking at the toys marketed to children, you have to think about what girls are taking away from them. It is very apparent that the heightened pink-obsessed market for female toys seem to exemplify the rigid gender roles in society. Girls shouldn't look at the color of a toy and immediately think about if it's societally correct of them to play with it. Toys are meant to inspire and teach kids that they can do anything, not force them into a role that they're "required" to remain in.
