Gendering toys.

Recently, I wanted to buy a toy for my nephew and he loves push things and pulling things and filling containers so I thought why not buy him a pram? I know what some of you may think of this, but that is my point of todays article; why does society genderise things, especially toys, and why can't children play with whatever they choose?

Ever since the dawn of time, pink has been typically for girls and blue for boys. Have you ever wondered why this is? Because by doing this we are teaching our children that that is the way it is; blue for boys and pink for girls. We are teaching them that boys play with trucks and cars and girls play with dolls and prams. Does this have to be the way things are? Children don't really notice the difference. I noticed that all the prams in the store were pink, and to be honest, I don't think he would be very interested in a pink pram.

And there's my point, why wouldn't he be happy with a pink pram? He shouldn't really notice should he? He probably won't, but the people around him will, and that is the issue.

I guess I'm saying that I don't understand why it is unacceptable in society for a boy to play with a doll. You might be saying, well it isn't, but in society when we see a boy playing with a doll, everyone thinks they are going to be gay, or something like that, perhaps they just like dolls? It's the same for girls, why can' they play with trucks and cars? Why can't kids just play with everything? It's the same with clothes. We expect girls to wear leggings or skirts, and boys to wear shorts and t-shirts. What are they supposed to do if they like dresses instead.

Society basically needs a whole change of mind set. We should be allowing our children to play with whatever they want and brands and retailers should stop making blue or pink things for boys and girls but make them colours for all. Perhaps we should make dresses for men - an example of this is David Beckham who wore a hairband to play football and a sarong to an event and everyone loved it! Why is it different if a non-celebrity chooses to do the same? Can we stop having a boys and girls section? Why can't people just be people, instead of blue or pink?

I know this may not be the case for everyone and some of you may have had dolls or trucks when you were kids and that is great, I'm just putting something out there that is generally true.

Let me know what you think of this topic and if I'm speaking gibberish or truths :) Check the forum for this article in the forum section to contribute!