Pink and blue. Boys and girls. Barbies and Tonka Trucks.
From the moment we are born, we are given standards. A a member of a specific gender, we are practically required to like certain things and act a certain way.
Boys like the color blue, playing with trucks, and getting messy.
Girls like the color pink, playing with Barbies, and dressing up.
The media practically lives by these standards. You don’t dress a baby girl up in blue and put her on the front of a magazine playing with trucks. Instead, a cute, blonde-haired, blue-eyed little girl is dressed up in a pink skirt and waving a magic wand or playing with Barbies.
But who’s to say girls can’t play with trucks?
For all that is said about accepting people of all colors, beliefs, and orientations, the toy stores are still divided into two sections; blocks and action figures for boys, dolls and dresses for girls.
Even the huge toy store chains are divided. Not specifically by gender, but by color. Pink for girls, blue for boys. Some colors are neutral, such as green and orange. Most of the rainbow is gender neutral, but how often do you see green or orange toys for girls?
Walking through those toy stores it’s clear that manufacturers and designers are getting better, and more and more toys are gender neutral, but gender will always be color specific.
Society has become more and more accepting over the years. Sexual orientation is becoming less and less of an issue for most people, and prejudice of skin color is a thing of the past. Hate still remains, but where there is peace, there will always be hate.
So if we are taking so many steps forward towards acceptance of all, why do we impose these standards to children at such a young age? A baby girl is born, and practically all of the decorations are pink. Why can’t color preferences be learned instead of innate, or something we’re born with?
Scientists have investigated this question, curious to see if this is culturally based or at a deeper level. Does the distinction between between color preferences depend on a biological basis? Or is it just the way our society depicts gender?
Tests have been performed, and there is no clear answer. Females have been proven to prefer warmer colors, while males lean towards colder colors such as blue and green. But when the tests are more widespread, results differ. Some girls like blue, and some boys like pink. But the majority of females like red and pink, and the majority of males like blue and green.
Until more advanced testing can be performed, no one can know for sure if color preferences are culturally or biologically based. Society is so biased towards gender that it’s hard to tell if scientific testing can prove anything. Maybe we have evolved to adjust our preferences to fit into our society today.