"No, that was just the only colour available."
When I went to buy replacement earphones this week, I was sorely disappointed at the lack of choice. There were only two options for in-ear earphones, and of those, only one choice of colour: pink.
Every fibre of my being cried "noooooooooo not the PINK" as if it were some awful disease. But as I didn't want the other type of earphone, the round flat ones, I had no choice but to choose: £7 pink earphones or £10 pink earphones.
And obviously, because I'm a cheapskate, it was the £7 pair that won.
It's not that I have anything against the colour pink (besides the fact that I don't really suit it). I just want to avoid the stereotypes that come with it. The Barbie, girly-girl stereotypes.
Can you imagine a world where colours didn't have connotations? Where red doesn't mean confident, and black doesn't mean goth?
The connotations of colour are nowhere as sharp and as pointed as with children's toys. Toys marketed for gender. Where pink means princess means girl. Where blue means train engine means boy.
The Let Toys Be Toys campaign is marvellous for its simple message, which is let toys be, er, toys. Let a truck be a truck that can be used by a child to drive around the room. Let a tea set be a tea set that a child can use to cater to their friends (real or not).
Toys, and the marketing of them, rely so much these days on the gender of its audience. Surely they would actually see better sales if they weren't purposely excluding one half of the child population? Both boys and girls could own a Barbie. And a gun*. Imagine the revenue!
But no. When Lego decided they wanted in on the girls market, instead of including girls in their ad campaigns and making it clear Lego wasn't just for boys, they developed the Friends range. And I'm sure you can imagine how I feel about this collection of Lego sets.
If you can't, watch this and maybe you'll understand.
Whether it be earphones, or toys for your 3, 5 or 8 yearold, there should be a choice. Parents, kids, people should feel as though they have a choice to choose what appeals to them most. And whilst they all do technically have the physical choice, many parents and many kids do not mentally feel they have a choice. Many parents don't want their kids to be different from the norm, because they might then feel they have failed as a parent. No kid wants to be made fun of because she plays with train sets and not tea sets. And vice versa. (the stigmatism for a guy acting like a girl is hella greater than a girl acting like a guy. - this article helps explain why. And you only have to look at Richard Branson dressing up as a woman after losing a bet to see this stigmatism continues today).
If there were more parents that allowed their kids to choose their toys no matter what convention says they should play with, then those kids will grow up to allow their kids to choose their toys no matter what convention says. In just a few generations, toys will be toys again.
Sometimes I consider having a child just to make sure they don't grow up restricted by such pathetic conventions.
And then of course, I facepalm, and realise that that's just a terrible reason for having a child.
In the mean time, I've discovered that pink earphones work perfectly fine.
Colour doesn't affect sound quality. Who knew?
* I am not condoning the purchase of fake weapons for children. Whilst we don't have a gun problem in the UK on the same scale as many other countries, toy guns normalise the use of violence, and that in itself should be viewed with caution.
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