Comments on: Pink Princesses and other Errata

By: Peter

Peter — Thu, 21 May 2009 08:41:57 +0000

When I was born, in 1958, my mother was sent something pink by a Danish friend (who knew I was a boy!). My mother thought it odd, so she associated blue with boys by then, but it was apparently pink for boys in Denmark.

By: Ticia

Ticia — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 14:27:04 +0000

Yeah, see I”m a sucker for fairy tales, so I tend to like all of them, even if they mostly have a “I need a man to save me theme.” However to get a fairy tale that isn’t a man needs to save me, look at Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. She’s the one who goes in and saves everyone, and it also isn’t love at first sight, which is a general weakness of most fairy tales and chick flicks.
See, I guess I’m not seeing the hypersexualization as much, because I’m avoiding most of the newer stuff.

By: wwbd

wwbd — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 23:48:24 +0000

This is a topic that is near and dear to me. My dissertation experiment focused on gender differences and it is the topic that I most enjoy lecturing about in my psych classes. Meta-analysis shows that the variation between sexes in most areas is less than 1%, but we let ourselves be convinced that there are wide gaps between men and women. I wish that we could remove gender from the way we parent our children, but it is impossible. Who knows what gender differences would exist if people didn’t need to label the sex of a baby before it is even born!

By: KGS

KGS — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 21:41:50 +0000

In professions, clubs, or other groups in which being strong, tough, or smart are seen as more desirable than being “sweet” or “nice,” I think pink in its most traditionally feminine, frilly guises is a dangerous path, but one with interesting potential too. In those circles at least, wearing lots of pink and highly “traditionally feminine” frilly things means you may have to try a little harder to be taken seriously. If you succeed in being the best at what you do, the fact that you do it while wearing (or in spite of?) pink fluff makes you seem even more awesome. If you end up in the middle of the pack, however, it’s easier for you to be overlooked as a piece of pink fluff than for an average woman who dresses in attire more traditional to that job/group. To me, this makes pink potentially
cool in some ways, but also fraught with peril.

As an example, consider the pink baseball glove. If a really talented female player uses one to win the game, that glove becomes a cool accessory and symbol of “girl power.” If, however, a run-of-the-mill female player uses it to perform adequately but not well , she’s “oh-so-cute,” not taken seriously, and likely passed over in favor of an earnest tomboy when it comes to picking players for the next team.

Perhaps “pink princess” type stuff is okay for some kinds of play at home, but I’d be very cautious about overloading a little girl with lots of these sorts of accessories for real-life situations (school supplies, sporting goods). Unfortunately it appears that a lot of the “princess products” are aimed at precisely those niches.

By: Allison

Allison — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 18:12:36 +0000

Wow, that New York Times Opinion piece really connected with me. I am totally sickened by some of the deliberate marketing efforts described in there. It also highlighted well how hard all this is for parents. Where do you draw the line? I think my family is still very much trying to figure that out.

By: AJ

AJ — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 16:03:53 +0000

Ticia, Disney’s Cinderella was produced in 1950, so there’s no hypersexualization, just the I-need-a-man-to-save-me message.

Bratz, as you mentioned, is a modern portrayal.

By: Tiffany

Tiffany — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 14:24:48 +0000

Interesting articles- thanks! One thing to think about also is that books for young adults tend to be the opposite of the media- while there are certainly plenty of not-so-good ones (gossip girl, for example), there are a great many authors writing wonderful books for girls, with very strong, powerful, imaginative female characters (Tamora Pierce, for example). The boys selection seems to be much more limited, unless you like manga with half-dressed women wanting nothing but a man….NOT. Needless to say, I have a son… Thank goodness for old standbys like C.S. Lewis!

By: Ticia

Ticia — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 14:09:30 +0000

I go back and forth on this subject. On the one hand, I do believe there are differences between girls and boys. I can see that just from how my 3 kids act. On the otherhand I also believe that most all things boys can do, girls can also do, and vice versa.

So, getting to what you’re talking about, part of me would like specific examples of what they’re talking about. Because, I look at Cinderella and don’t see her as hypersexualized. Now, I look at the modern day Bratz dolls, and I think oversexed toy not coming in my house. I also was a great reader in my childhood and found lots of great female examples of character, and there was always a girl in the cartoons I liked to be when playing with my friends. It may just be all in what you’re looking for.

By: Anon

Anon — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 10:40:22 +0000

Before the industrial revolution, and I think probably into the 1800s, there wasn’t really much of a concept of children in western culture. Once a working-class child was old enough to work, they worked, and there wasn’t any concept of childhood innocence. I read about it in a psychology textbook, didn’t know it before, so maybe other people didn’t too.

In regards to gender in popular culture, I think part of the problem is that girls are still the other gender. If you have a family of cartoon animals, the ones with bows in their non-existant hair are the girls, and the ones without are boys.