The Innocence of Pink and Blue

From: Claire

            For my image, I decided to make a collage depicting the many ways the retail industry develops a child’s gender role for them before they are even born.

            Throughout the image, varying hues of pink and blue provide a reaction to the “discovery” that a child is either a boy or a girl, for there can be no deviations when it comes to the gender binary. Even the background, with its dominant blue on top and subordinate pink on the bottom, immediately snaps to mind thoughts of baby gender stereotypes.

            In the centre of the collage a cake is displayed, a cake made especially for a “gender reveal” party. Specifically coloured icing within the cake announces the sex of the baby-to-be. On top, iced with a large question mark and the words, “Pink or Blue, May your wish come true…”, the idea that parents truly do have a preference when it comes to the gender of their baby is fed into.

            Surrounding images represent the methods in which retailers, as well as society in general, impress cultural ideals and expectations as the social norm. Wrapping paper in a soft pink for girls coos, “sweet baby,” while a bright blue for boys declares, “little man” and “oh boy!” The cards for baby boys state stereotypical items of “boy culture,” such as “blocks,” “sailboats,” and “trains,” words that describe active play. For the girls’ equivalent, decorative words such as, “ribbons,” “tutus,” and “tiaras” describe adornments for visual accentuation. A boy is to be curious and play, but also strong and manly; a girl is to be “gorgeous,” look nice, and stay a girl as long as possible. A card on the left already demonstrates the stereotype that women should care mostly about looks, and that expectation is to be passed on to the newest generation.

            By using a softer filter that toyed with the tone of the images, I hoped to provoke the innocence of childhood. Some of the images darken at the edges, almost suggesting that infancy is the freest time in life, free from the darker knowledge that we must be a certain way to fit into society. The children these items are meant for are innocent of the binary roles they are to learn. The scripts are set out for children before they even know who they are themselves.