The Pinkification of Girls’ Toys

The Pinkification of Girls’ Toys January 18, 2017

Check out this 1980s ad for the Barbie Dream House:

The house is yellow, with a red roof. Click through for a similar ad from the 1970s (I couldn’t imbed it, sorry!). Much like the 1980s depiction above, the Barbie Dream House is red and yellow. It’s not that there’s no pink at all in these products—there is. See the bathtub, and one of the cars. It’s just that it’s not at all overwhelming.

Now, check out the same product, as sold today:

The entire house is made up of shades of pink. It’s not just the walls that are pink, it’s also the dressers, the beds, the sofas—even the toilet seat and the refrigerator door handle. Frankly, it’s a mercy the dining room chairs aren’t pink.

What happened, exactly? The pinkification of toys geared toward girls today is impossible not to notice. Walk down any toy aisles at any box store—the “girls” toys are thoroughly pink and purple. It wasn’t always this way. There was a time when “girls” toys, while still geared toward girls, were a variety of colors. The extreme color-coded world children live in today is new, and not inevitable.


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