Growing up my favorite toys were my Wonder Woman and my Sabrina, of Charlie’s Angels fame, dolls. Barbie, with her blonde hair and million outfits couldn’t hold my attention for too long, and forget pretending to be a princess and tea parties.
Second to my dolls’ crime-solving adventures, were my books and a desire to play sports. So I totally get Riley as she so eloquently puts it, “Some girls like superheroes, some girls like princesses! Some boys like superheroes, some boys like princesses! So why do all the girls have to buy pink stuff and all the boys have to buy different color stuff?”
Tell ‘em girl!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=-CU040Hqbas#!]
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and should not be understood to be shared by Being Latino, Inc.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
About Libby Juliá-Vázquez
Well Riley, why do all the girls have to buy pink stuff and all the boys have to buy different color stuff? Because when it all comes down to it, no matter what a smart alec kid like you says, in the end, girls will always like the princesses and the pink stuff and boys will like the other. It’s just the way it has always been, in the past, and in the present, and forever into the future. There might be some boys who want the pink stuff, and maybe some girls will want the blue stuff, but in the natural scheme of things those will be small minorities, and the rest of the population will be against what your little heart is complaining about.
She’s not a smart alec. She’s just smart.
Oh Mario. Perhaps you can do a little research on the history of gender-specific colors. Pink as being necessarily for girls and blue for boys is not universal, “natural,” or ahistorical. This color arrangement is also liable to change.
An interesting article that examines the history of color and gender-specific clothing… “When Did Girls Start Wearing Pink?”
“The march toward gender-specific clothes was neither linear nor rapid. Pink and blue arrived, along with other pastels, as colors for babies in the mid-19th century, yet the two colors were not promoted as gender signifiers until just before World War I—and even then, it took time for popular culture to sort things out.
For example, a June 1918 article from the trade publication Earnshaw’s Infants’ Department said, ‘The generally accepted rule is pink for the boys, and blue for the girls. The reason is that pink, being a more decided and stronger color, is more suitable for the boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is prettier for the girl.’ Other sources said blue was flattering for blonds, pink for brunettes; or blue was for blue-eyed babies, pink for brown-eyed babies, according to Paoletti.”
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/When-Did-Girls-Start-Wearing-Pink.html
Wow, very interesting!