We’ve all fallen victim to the stigma that is gendering. Put on by society’s rules and regulations of what people can or can’t do. Now we have progressed a great deal and have took major strides towards ending this, however there’s still much to be done.
For some reason society has decided that boys are supposed to play with action figures, toy guns, and monster trucks while girls are to dress up like Disney princesses, play with dolls, and wear makeup and not vice versa. The funny thing is if a boy does “girly” things then they’re seen as weak which is “bad” and if a girl does “boyish” things then they’re seen as too strong which is just as “bad.”
The clothes pertaining to each gender is sort of characterized when it comes to the message it sends. Girl’s clothing tends to have messages such as, “I Look Fabulous,” and “Queen of Beauty.” Boy’s clothing tends to send messages like, “Be A Hero,” and “Work Hard, Play Hard.” This shows clear distinctions between what men are supposed to be and what women are supposed to be. Women are only portrayed as pretty, not smart, not strong, but pretty while men are to be the strong, adventurous ones.
Colors are also assigned a certain gender. Bright colors such as pink, and yellow are associated with girls and darker toned colors like blue and red for boys. Before it was actually the opposite of now, pinks were for boys and blues for girls. This was because pink was thought of to be the strongest out of the two colors so it went to the male gender. However it wasn’t until the 1940s that retailers and manufacturers decided that pink was for girls and blue was for boys. Another example of gendered colors is the time before birth. Colors are used to describe the gender of an expected baby. If the baby is a girl then the color pink is used and if the baby is a boy the color blue is used. And if a boy was to wear the color pink or say his favorite color is pink then he was looked at differently and often believed to be gay. While if a girl was to only where darker clothing they were seen as weird.
Toys are toys! Clothes are clothes! Colors are colors! There’s no point in assigning a gender to them. That just creates stereotypes and eventually leads to a life of persecution.
