Pink toys cost more and it's a sexist scandal!
As it's birthday prep time, with Shorty turning four on the 13th and Sassy turning nine on June 17th I've been made painfully aware about how diametrically different these girls are from each other, and how wonderful it is they don't see it or care.
Sassy my Tomboy and Shorty my Girly-girl.
Sassy is now starting to appreciate/fold to the peer pressure to be more feminine. I've not asked her why she's wanting pink combat trousers, or pink sweatshirts when she then wants black sneakers with Action Man and everything Justice League and Pokemon. She's loving her bento lunches but hating the ugly lunchbag I have for her (It's in Miami Dolphins colours, so I sympathize.) So when I was stockpiling at the grocery store yesterday I thought I'd get her a new lunchbag. Simple, nothing fussy. They had two types, a store own brand and a Thermos brand. The Thermos brand was £5.00 and came in black or magenta. The Tesco brand came in black for £1.30, but their pink one was £2.00! Why?! Why would you charge me an extra .70p for the pink one? Does pink plastic cost more? Not according to Thermos is doesn't. So tell me Tesco - what's with the sexism? Oh, it must be sexist - otherwise why not price match the same products?
Because you think I'm going to cowtow to your demands on the basis of my daughter's absolute need for gender advertising? Do you think my kid is going to go into gender identity crisis because I won't spend the extra .70p to get her the pink lunchbag? She'll become the butt of humiliating finger pointing from her girl-friends at school for being the poor kid with a black lunchbag? An object of pity because her mother doesn't think she's worth the pink lunchbag? Why Tesco do you charge more for the pink?
Oh and don't think Tesco is alone in this - have you ever noticed that a lot kid's toys charge more for the pink version of the exact same technologies - and it is tech toys primarily. Never noticed? I did. That's why Sassy has blue and green toys, because I wouldn't pay extra for the pink - it's fundamentally wrong. I'd have gone so far as to boycott the product all together but she really wanted her leapfrog talking book leappad thing.
Well I didn't buy Tesco's lunchbag. Sassy actually did want a pink lunchbag this time, so I bought her the Thermos one. Then I went and wrote a long complaint to Tesco on the scandalous, sexist pricing policy. I actually did use the phrase "Scandalous and sexist!". I don't care the price, £1.30 over £2.00 is nothing really but it's the fact people are being price gouged for feminized products. I'm on a search now to out the sexists and scandalous behavior because Tesco isn't alone in this. ToysRus also have same item/different colours price discrepancies, although granted not as bad as they did a few years ago. I will now challenge this whenever I find it and demand a price adjustment, or the details for the item's company complaints team.
I'll let you know if Tesco gets back to me - they should within 7 days by writing. I'm also writing to ToysRus to let them know that the Bop It toy in pink costs £3.05 more than the multi-coloured one (And it's way ugly!). Oh, and Tesco again is charging £4.00 more for the pink Vtech notebook over the blue one. (Shorty was looking over my shoulder for the searching shouting "I want the pink one!" and I shake my head at the situation I'm in. she wants it but I'm not paying extra for it. I'm not buying it at all. Get used to disappointment, kid.)
The real thing of it is I don't give a shit about the thing being pink over blue, I'd prefer neutral coloured toys anyways - but it's the unfairness to charge more for the girlish colour. That is just wrong unless there's a charitable reasons applied like donations to breast cancer research or something. But that's not the case with any of the items mentioned in this post.
So come here and out your sexist shop! Tell us where else you've found pink items overpriced as compared to the unisex/boys ones. I'm on a rampage now - I'm going to send letters to all of these companies. You should too - I can't be the only one annoyed by this.
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Emu - I read that article too - it was really good but with the full force feminism behind against the Pink Invasion of our new Princess Infection and buying pink is merely grooming our daughters into a life of stinted consumerism. Yes yes...was very interesting. I think this is the article you meant; Tyranny of Pink by Eleanor Bailey
I'm very lucky my eldest won't openly choose pink except for the rare items of clothing. She is very Tomboy, neutral, open to all choices and she's amazing for it (Her favourite colours are navy blue, red and medium purple (?)). My youngest is caught up in the Passion of the Pink, and I'm hoping she'll use some of her big sister idolization to temper herself. Thank Fuck for school uniforms!! *LOL* I think flip-flops are universal for being onomatopoetic. It's thongs that throw us.
I think you've posed an interesting evaluation of this color pink. I wonder, if we weren't so inundated with the color as an option for girls, that girls wouldn't be so attracted to it? As little girls we're sort of forced to like it. I'm catching your drift here. I take it your eldest has diverted from pink because if your influence?
I, along with most people, attach femininity to pink, probably because since an early age, I was programmed with its association with being girly. I know I've liked pink. At least when I was a little girl I did. Once I got older I started to associate it with being too girly. Now, as an adult, I'm not necessarily always attracted to pink, but I have an appreciation for it. I suppose that's because as an adult I can choose what sort of pink things to like :D
It's sort of absurd to think about but, it seems that for some reason or another there is this need to immerse a young one into a defined gender. Because, after all, if a little girl were to take the same notion toward blue she might turn herself into a boy :D
I do believe this is all in due part to the fashion industry. I don't know as we'd think anything about colors if we weren't being influenced in some way. I think currently, pink has become quite fashionable for young women. Everything goes in cycles. And, I'm starting to really get on my nerves right now...I'm rambling I'm afraid.