I'm going into my junior year of high school next week, and I was browsing a PBteen catalogue for a new desk lamp. When I reached the appropriate page, the first thing I noticed is that the books on the left side of the book shelf are dark blue, and the books on the right side are bright pink. This immediately let's you know which products are geared towards guys and girls.
Now, personally, I'm not exactly super femme, or into pink merchandise, so it's irritating that the pink stereotype is so predominant. The next thing I noticed was that the guy's page had serious, dark lamps, (one including ipod technology). The girl's side, on the other hand, advertised white (pure) lamps with little hearts all over them. Now, none of this really pissed me off, because who knows; probably most of the preppy girls who order from this catalogue have pink/white/light blue rooms. But what really made me angry were the titles of the color-divided books on the segregated shelves. The boys side had these titles: "French First," "The Beckoning Silence," "Seven Summits," "Out of the Dust," "Fundamentals of Chemistry," "American Cars," and my favorite: "Officially Independent." The girl's books consisted of these flattering titles: "Glamour's Big Book of Do's and Don'ts," "Fassion Illustration," "Surf Diva," "Princess in Training," "The A-List," "It's a Chick Thing," "Craftygirl Beauty" [ball of yarn included.], "Something Borrowed," [as in the marriage poem], "Girlosophy," "Mirror Mirror," and "Blonde Ambition." Now, both sides are being sexist, becaue not all guys are study buffs such as the soul who the guy's bookshelf belongs to, and not all guys would have a toy truck randomly sitting on their bookshelf. But at least the guy's shelf has textbooks and literature, suggesting substance and education. What irks me is that aside from all the pink going on in the girl's bookshelf, all the books have to do with either beauty, fashion, marriage, [for God's sake this is a store marketed towards TEENAGERS.], or other female stereotypes [blond/cliques.] I don't know- maybe I'm overeacting, and yes, it's something small in the big picture, but this is seriously sexism and stereotypes packaged for the next generation.
What do you guys think?
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trust me, girl. We all know what you're talking about. Pink irks me and most of all, "girl-geared" advertising makes me so mad!!!! I don't even like pink anyway!
and yes. i agree, it is sexist.
By PB, you mean Pottery Barn, right?
Yes it's sexist, and I'm saying that as a woman who has a pink Pottery Barn Kids (girls) phone (of which I'm terribly fond). I actually LIKE pink, and I find it disorienting to go to the Pottery Barn Kids floor, with the strict gender segregation. I didn't realize they did 'teens' and it was just as bad.
But you'll have to pry my pink phone out of my cold, dead hands.
I remember going through a period in my late teens when I was so annoyed that girl razors only came in pink, and boy razors came in silver-all personal hygiene products were the same way. Now I have a weird form of colour blindness, where the presence of pink, purple, and their varied permutations causes me to become blind to other colours, and I've had to stop myself from buying things just because they are pink!
Urg... the color coding doesn't bother me half as much as the titles.
Silly girls. We obviously have nothing in our empty little heads except for clothes and makeup. And a wedding ring, once a guy decides to grace us with his smart guy-ness. Stands to reason.
Sigh.
I've been getting the PBTeen catalog since they first launched their teen line. They actually started out okay. I mean, there was still obvious gender segregation in terms of what they offered to guys vs. girls, but it wasn't like the girl stuff was super-girly or the guys stuff was super-macho. It seems to have gotten worse over the years. Now, girls are expected to be pink and preppy and guys to be obsessed with sports. I usually don't find anything I like there anymore.