After seeing a video calling out products that are the exact same but are labelled differently to attract men and women to separate packaging, I have begun noticing this trend manifest itself in numerous ways. The most obvious being a trip to a local stable where a young boy was taking riding lessons. After pulling out two saddles (one pink and one purple), one for him and one for a little girl who was also taking the lesson, the instructor quickly stated that she would find the little boy a blue saddle because purple is a color for girls. This moment struck me as strange. Why would she not just ask the little boy if he wanted another colored saddle? What if his favorite color was purple and he was excited to use that saddle? Hasn't society progressed enough to admit that anyone can like any color no matter the gender?

With this event in the back of my mind, a trip to the fireworks store was no less influential. While walking the aisle with the cutesy fireworks (sparklers, party poppers, snappers) etc. there were buckets of fireworks that only came in two colors: blue and pink and these were also labelled with gendered names, but were obviously the same product. Although I know this is a marketing gimmick meant to attract children of both genders, these ideas are molding the social constructs that will be passed on and reinforced by these kids. This is teaching them that they should only like certain things because they are a certain gender. It's one small example that mirrors why women get paid less than men on average, why there are no professional women's football leagues, why less men are seen in "girly" professions. It's 2017. It's way passed the time to purely embrace individuality and blur the lines of these social constructs.