The pinkification of girlhood - How surprised are you by the results of this survey?

Here’s one more link I found:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/belinda-parmar/pink-really-does-stink_b_1675472.html

I really wish this type of organization would grow and people would just simply boycott products. I find adverts for example constantly aimed at women and their appearance. An advert showing a ‘model like’ female spitting blood into a sink as she suffers from gum disease, then walks with thigh high stockings, heels and short dress down the stairs flicking her hair it one of the many that I find highly irritating.

If we are not being told to lose weight, stop smelling under our armpits, wearing the wrong foundation to name a few we are also being told to be great mothers and look after our family better by buying certain products.

But yes, the most annoying is the emphasis placed on how women look. Possibly in real life our value drops by 80% the moment we don’t fit into a standard idea of beauty regardless of how we are as people.. Sadly though many women buy into this crap and spend their lives copying other women or so called role models. I see it here daily I feel the role models that lead younger females this way (get some fake tits, eyelashes and fake orange tan) should be ignored. Or placed on a trash heap where they belong.

It will only last as long as stupid women and men buy into it.

All I know is that I was never a girly-girl growing up, and I never liked the gender stereotypes in girls. I was so glad that I had a son, because the pink princess crap was really taking off in the ‘90s when he was a kid, and I see its impact on the girlfriends he’s had. They push the girls from Disney Princesses to Barbies to Hannah Montana (or whomever the tween sensation du jour is) to Victoria’s Secret. Ugh.

Boycotting products is not easy when you have a little girl and all her classmates have the stuff, and they advertisements are everywhere. Boycotting media is the first step, so that you limit the exposure to the marketing that is pervasive within the programs and content as well as the ads.

I, too, was glad I had boys; it just seems harder to be a self-actualizing girl although now that I come to think of it,, there were some pretty tough little girls around when my boys were young. Counter to what one might have expected post the feminist movement of the 1970s, there now seems to be more of an emphasis on appearance and sexuality for young girls. Even Lego sets are boy-oriented or girl-oriented! I hate it. I’m not seeing it as much in France where my grandson is being raised but will have to observe it more closely there. (Of course, all the women there are born with an innate fashion sense so it doesn’t need to be instilled! ~)

@hearkat and @janbb – But what about sons? Is there such a thing as blueification? Is there blue crap? Don’t be sad, be strong and become a football quarterback? Drive a Porsche? Protect your girlfriend when things get dangerous? Take care of the restaurant bill? Be the one who pops the question? Be the one who should buy an expensive ring?

I guess I feel my parenting and that of my husband’s – to a somewhat lesser extent – was a bigger influence on them than the culture. There certainly is pressure on boys to be men but I don’t see it as quite as powerful; at least when I was rearing mine. Neither my husband nor I were of the “boys don’t cry” school and both of my sons can verbalize their feelings.

Yes, this is yet just another example of how boys and girls are suckered into playing out gender roles that each culture deems as fit for each sex to take part in, and we see plenty of this through advertising. Hey, the guy still drives the car in most of these commercials. It sounds like matt has inadvertently agreed with most of what I’ve been posting relating to gender issues all along.

They’ve got their work cut out for them

I wish more people were aware of this! It highlights the silliness of drawing conclusions about the colour pink. The whole thing is just a marketing ploy, anyway. That’s my main reason for hating the trend.

I’ve never had a problem with my nine year old daughter thinking she couldn’t do something because she’s a girl. @janbb is right, a parent should be the main influence for their child.

I don’t think there is anything wrong with liking blue or pink, because at the end of the day I’m going to let my daughter choose what she likes. If she wants the toys in the boys section, she can have them. If she likes a t shirt in the boys section, she can have it. If she want princess stuff, she can have them. If she wants to play tag football and wear pink athletic pants when she does, she can (and does). No one is stopping her. We are sad that after this next year she can’t go on to play JFL, because it’s just for boys. She has many girl friends who would also like to play beyond tag football. Some of these girls play better than the boys right now. We are thinking of starting a girls league, but we would need other towns to be involved and we don’t know where to start, but we may try,

I’m so tired of everyone blaming the media and blaming stores for having separate sections. The sections are actually helpful for finding exactly what you want. I don’t want one big neutral colored store where I can’t find a football helmet and princess pajamas because everything has to be the same.

Blame the parent for not being a better influence.

Thank you for the link @glacial.

@bkcunningham Always happy to share a little QI. :)