‘Pink is for girls and blue is for boys’, I am not sure how this became the universal truth that we accepted and have to live by but if you plan on buying clothes, toys or anything for children, you simply cannot escape it. In addition to this, today’s children spend a lot of time playing on electronic devices and watching TV shows created for them, which have a huge impact on their world view, role models and aspirations.
It is dolls against dinosaurs and trains against teasets. Even typically gender-neutral toys like Lego also seem to have undergone a transformation and there is a clear segregation in the target audience. The sets for girls have beautiful homes, speedboats, picnic and cafeterias, while the ones for boys have Star Wars and other action based themes.
The way that the world is presented to boys and girls seem different. Boys have to be superheroes fighting evil, protecting everyone and saving the world while girls have to be beautiful princesses in an idyllic world, which I do not believe is healthy. This being said though, there are a lot of positive messages that girls can do and become what they want and this is where boys get the short end of the stick – girls can grow to become police officers or pilots but a boy becoming a nurse or running a bakery – no way!
Practically, all boys’ toys and TV shows pass the message that they have to fight to protect the world. In reality there is no one that they need to fight and imitating things they have seen just gets them into trouble, so I don’t think the toys and TV shows of today provide children with a adequate sense of self.
- The reader is an Indian manager based in Dubai
