Beyond the Blue and Pink Toy Divide | Elizabeth Sweet | TEDxUCDavisSalon

[@buchfink1905]

That is a great speech! I have two little boys and shopping toys is really difficult. I imagine for parents of little girls is must be even worse. My oldest son (he just turned 5) loves the colour pink. From a very young age he told everybody that his favourite colour is pink. But when he turned 3 I started to notice that that was only true when he talked to someone he knew very well. Whenever someone else asked him about his favourite colour his answer became "blue“. I tried to talk to him about it and I think he knows that blue is the expected or "right“ answer. We try to encourage him about liking pink by telling him that it is okay (and it is really sad that we have to do so). It would be great if we could also show him that it is okay to like pink if we could buy him cloth or toys that are pink, but not explicitly designed for girls. But sadly that is almost impossible.

[@stanleystrem6029]

My biggest example is when I had a kindergarten birthday with my class and everything I got was superhero’s cars etc, and I ended up taking them back to the store and bought horse toys, and when I got to the cash register the cashier said “are these for your little sister?” I said no, but didn’t feel as excited. Lesson here don’t gender anything, colours, toys, subject etc etc

[@alexandrafranke6232]

At 6 years my teacher ask my favourite colour. I said pink. She said not that Colour it's a girl colour. I said purple. She said no. I said green. And she gave a reluctant "ok"

[@lockandloadlikehell]

Thats hott.

[@felisazure1820]

I'm honestly really glad my mom never painted it as wrong for me to go into the different aisles for anything I wanted. But that still didn't stop others from judging me, unfortunately. Great Ted Talk!

[@anjalilalithambika1531]

What some people here fail to realize is that there is something called 'creating demand'. A generation's preference doesn't always reflect it's need.

[@IonIsFalling7217]

And people wonder why I wanted to be a boy most of my life

[@mamapeach90]

🎯 Key Takeaways for quick navigation: 00:17 🎨 *Toys are often segregated by gender in stores, with pink and blue aisles being common, perpetuating gender stereotypes.* 01:36 🛍️ *Despite efforts to move towards gender-neutral toy presentation, the pink/blue divide still persists, reinforcing traditional gender roles.* 04:11 🎠 *Toys are more gendered today than at any point in the 20th century, with fewer options available that aren't defined by gender.* 08:48 💔 *Gender-coded products can lead to unnecessary pain and suffering for children, with examples of bullying and even suicide attempts due to interests deemed inappropriate for their gender.* 09:18 🤝 *Gender stereotypes in children's toys contribute to societal issues like occupational segregation and the wage gap, impacting aspirations and perceptions of competence.* 11:49 🧩 *Gendered toy marketing limits children's exploration of diverse interests, potentially influencing career choices and perpetuating gender inequalities.* 13:37 🌈 *Removing the pink and blue divide doesn't mean uniformity or limitations; it opens up possibilities for all children to explore a full spectrum of interests and themes.* 16:38 📚 *Children's interests should not be dictated by corporate profit; instead, toy choices should reflect deeper societal values and interests for children.* Made with HARPA AI

[@naolucillerandom5280]

I really felt bad that time my grandma told my 5 years old brother that my sister won't play guns with him when she grows up, because "girls play with kitchens and dolls". I still have to insist to him that my favorite color is blue and not pink, he aks this to me everytime we have to pick somehing by color. If no one else does something, I'll be the one to tell my sister that she can play with whatever she wants when she's old enough to notice this kind of things. I'm okay with most things that are meant for girls, but I may be holding back a little myself... I mean, my mom, my aunts and classmates keep asking me "but don't you use earings?" "why don't you like make up?" "whatever, *some of us like to look pretty*".

[@ladyvincenza]

Very interesting topic! Re: dinosaurs: when I was in kindergarten about 100 years ago, I was playing with a boy and we had toy dinosaurs. I said my dinosaur was a girl. He said there were no girl dinosaurs. I said, yeah, there were! The teacher vindicated me on this one.

[@oliviajohnson1290]

Why do you need “boys toys” and “girls toys” can’t toys just be toys Especially when your at the age of playing with toys you buy in a supermarket gender doesn’t really matter

[@jlbeeen]

I was always told I had to be girly, but a lot of the things I liked were marketed towards boys. I liked Lego, heroes, cars, trucks, robots... And I have a nephew who loves playing with a kitchen set. I'm glad my dad was good with wood, and my favourite things as a young child were things he made, a wooden truck, and a rocking horse. At least when I was growing up, mostly in the early 2000s, there were some more tomboy characters, even just Applejack and Rainbow Dash in My Little Pony were good, but not enough. There was Mulan who challenged gender, but it wasn't easy to not neatly fit in either side. I still don't, I prefer to wear unisex clothes, and I'm wanting to work in tech, but yeah, a lot of childhood toys, as well as video games (I grew up the GameBoy Advance era, and it's right there, Game Boy), a lot of games for girls were all about dress up, taking care of pets, and shopping, sometimes farming, where games for boys were about saving the world, going on adventures, racing, and sports, clearly better gameplay options. One thing I'm glad about, is my dad made wooden toys, I can sew, so I don't have to worry about tags saying something, because I don't put tags on my stuff. But it took a long time to get to the point where I'm okay not fitting in, only after I graduated high school.

[@oregano2771]

Why am I not surprised that they were flooded with comments on *Facebook*

[@mindvolution]

Excellent talk! Eye opening indeed. Gender stereotypes suffocate authentic personality throughout life.

[@mindvolution]

@Corno di Bassetto You see what culture teaches you to see. And you also behave the way your cultural setting encourages you to behave like. Young women often don't really realize how their mindset and self-perception have been hijacked by a hyper-sexualized male-view dominated popular culture in marketing, fashion and so on.

[@chrisdyck08]

this is relevant and cisnormativity and toxic masculinity are both toxic and need to be addressed. Kudos for touching on this controversial topic.

[@eboomer]

Indica moon - A) Do you realize that most people are cisgender? B) Do you know what the word "normal" means? C) Yes, if you define something using the word toxic, then it stands to reason it would be toxic... I know it makes me misogynist, but it seems to me like controversial topics are worthy of actual thought, and not just throwing half-baked lingo around. Try it sometime.

[@lockandloadlikehell]

Your toxic femininity and excessive neuroticism and agreeableness is on full display. "Kudos"

[@lockandloadlikehell]

No real boy wants to play with dollies.

[@anupamaMall]

Toys and colors are gender neutral 😇

[@darkangel2347]

The world's first palenotologist was a girl who had to teach her self to read in the early 19th century. But dinosaurs by some strange reason is now a boy only affair. Best known by the tale "She sells sea sheels by the sea shore". But in the Jurassic park movies, almost all the palentologists are men.

[@asishpatra4415]

Hey, that's unfair. I agree with you.

[@bloggerblogg5878]

The world first sci-fi book written by a woman, and the sci-fi still consider as a men genre, like they are better in that. Anyway I just wanted to say, lots of things in the world that a woman did first and now consider is a ''men'' thing or only man can do.

[@treacherousjslither6920]

I saw a short film about her a little while ago. Never heard of her before then. Sad she isn't more well known.

[@treacherousjslither6920]

@@bloggerblogg5878 Due to rampant sexism a lot of female science fiction authors only used their first name initials so as to hide the fact that they were women.

[@Noneofurbeezniss21]

Seeing the dolls go from 25cents to $25 😭

[@pyroslavx7922]

And how language changes with time... i think there would be an issue with magazin title: Boys today-men tomorrow ERECTOR set :-) That's even better than word "gay" used way too often in Shakespeare's writings.

[@heheheiamasupahstarchimera631]

0:31 I'm surprised to see Mixels labelled as girls' building sets. I got the impression that they were pretty gender-neutral, but more marketed towards boys. I suppose that says something about unnecessary segregation.

[@musicalbabysteps9863]

Haha funny video. Reminds me of my childhood! I was a fan of dinosaurs and im a girl, i played with super heros and when i got a doll by a girl invited at my birthday when i was a child, i cried and cried and said i didnt want it. Haha this was actually recorded on camera otherwise i dont remember it. Haha so i always knew they were stereotypes.

[@staspopel5982]

we live in a society

[@supperatsicks]

Socioeconomics also plays a role here.

[@andrewkosman1961]

beyond the blue and pink toy divide, I think your right, but not completely , though certain toy's were more neutral . But you wanted a barbie doll and you're a boy. And if you where a girl a science set. There where problems. Why, that was a division choice, we where tested, listed into certain classification, , which means that certain people can do certain thing, and it started as a child, choices ! But they made into mistake they don't correct it! There records are hard copies , so new records are never updated!

[@aldawg922]

bro your english is terrible

[@andrewkosman1961]

@@aldawg922 No I think differently I think in imagines , so I think faster than I type, I tend miss a word or three?

[@balkonsalamander3079]

Shoutout 1gig1

[@marialguevara]

very eye opening for sure

[@jakeeberhard5956]

Lowkey brought back the gendered colors tho

[@paranjothijothi935]

That is information about you the shop directly purchase notable but online Store purchases at Aliexpress unlocked account successfully completed sendme say but suddenly lock account kids very much suffered liketoys of multiple colours notyetreceived how can I received my address

[@Jeffrey3571]

Yeah, this is 2020 Its not the 80's no more

[@07rabo1]

So the toys are far more gendered now, in our far more gender-conscious society... Unless there is somekind of "toy-maker conspiracy", that sounds to me like toy-makers are simply answering a demand that they observe.

[@lockandloadlikehell]

@MrHotPinkBanana What do you mean "what demand"? The demand that sells toys. Hallucinating again?

[@lockandloadlikehell]

@MrHotPinkBanana Why would you want to reduce the number of of people "that would buy it"?

[@lockandloadlikehell]

@MrHotPinkBanana What's "what happens"?

[@brandommartinez1474]

exactly lol

[@Jenny-px5tu]

You don't understand how the market works. The toy companies create demand with millions and millions of dollars worth of advertising and then if one company does something and they do it all the copycats come in and flood it and then there's a lack of innovation and everybody's doing the same thing and you get the problem that she's talking about. The lack of opportunity for little girls to think about themselves as scientists and other roles when they're little because of the toy companies, purposeful decision is simply awful.

[@ifluxion]

That doesn't make sense...if toys were more gender-neutral than it is today, why were men more masculine and women more feminine back then?

[@ソトヤママリアテレサ]

who remembers "You'll shoot your eye out!?" It's like get your son a Red Ryder BB gun. Mamas don't let your sons grow up to psychos. Think of how many shooting toys you can get your kids like water guns. Think of Megatron and Galvitron. they are tranformers that transform into guns. what is it teaching kids?

[@CAZruns]

To get good at shooting

[@treacherousjslither6920]

Not really any different from kids playing with toy swords. Slaying monsters to save the princess and the world lol

[@malcorub]

My Russian friend tells me blue is for girls in his country.

[@Nothin2seehere-e4z]

That nice and all, but biology also plays a part.

[@Kiki-reads]

Interesting, I didn’t know that along with genes for vaginas came genes for liking pink! Those poor women and girls must have lived such unfulfilling lives before the discovery of pink pigments :(

[@robertomariartus8516]

"Our children's interests should never be dictated by the market"......I thought they were/are the market? From a wider viewpoint, aren't women the biggest consumers?

[@phantommenace6934]

The defiant education intringuingly develop because boundary proportionally grip pro a sparkling segment. uppity, rapid estimate

[@surfdawg7326]

This is the dumbest TED talk I've ever listened too. The insecurities of the child are due to the weakness of the parents. Trying to change society to make your kid feel better is a futile endeavor. Try raising a strong confident boy or girl to power through any obstacle society throws their way instead. No one is forced to do anything

[@Arena1999]

I do agree the premise that parents should help their children be more strong-willed when they're being challenged; that's a good lesson to teach. However, even if no one is forcing anyone to do anything, they're so much pressure for people to conform to certain standards rather than respecting individuality that it's almost the same thing. Sure, society isn't going to bend to one kid who feels bad, but it isn't just that one kid - it scores of children who get ostracized for behaving a certain way because it doesn't match to what's expected of them. It's not unreasonable to at least shine a light on that issue, so children can speak up about these experiences.

[@youfoundityoufoundit6675]

peepee is pink

[@LightningStrikes66]

This is Why Toy stores are gonna close... can’t believe people spend their time on this.

[@caleblastname4189]

irrelevant completely

[@nullavitasinemusica1]

your comment yes lel

[@lockandloadlikehell]

@MrHotPinkBanana Your comment also uses incorrect sentence structure. Don't you hate when that happens?? This is too easy. 😂

[@lockandloadlikehell]

@MrHotPinkBanana It was definitely bereft of any meaning...and ironic.