Blame It On Barbie — The Obsession With Gendered Toys and Colours

South Korean photographer JeongMee Joon has highlighted the stark difference between ‘girls toys’ and ‘boys toys’ in a series she calls Pink And Blue.

The project was initiated Joon’s five-year-old daughter, who loved the color pink so much that she wanted to wear only pink clothes and play with only pink toys and objects.

Joon discovered that her daughter’s case was not unusual. In the United States, South Korea and elsewhere, most young girls love seem to love pink clothing, accessories and toys. This phenomenon is widespread among children of various ethnic groups regardless of their cultural backgrounds.

Conversely, many boys have a lot of blue possessions. When the toy and clothing aisles are already segregated into ‘boy’ and ‘girl’ and blue and pink dominate, it becomes hard for parents to buck the trend.

As Joon notes,

The differences between girls’ objects and boys’ objects are also divided and affect their thinking and behavioral patterns. Many toys and books for girls are pink, purple, or red, and are related to make up, dress up, cooking, and domestic affairs. However, most toys and books for boys are made from the different shades of blue and ? are related to robots, industry, science, dinosaurs, etc. This is a phenomenon as intense as the Barbie craze. Manufacturers produce anthropomorphic ponies that have the characteristics of young girls. They have barrettes, combs and accessories, and the girls adorn and make up the ponies. These kinds of divided guidelines for the two genders deeply affect children’s gender group identification and social learning.

The good news? Girls seem to grow out of the pink phase by Grade 4. Then they move on to purple.