Gender Reinforcement

This past weekend I was on my way home from an organization competition, and while on our way home, the bus had complications that landed up sitting in McDonalds for nearly three hours. Loads of fun, yes I know. But as I was sitting there observing the interactions around I couldn’t help but notice these two adorable kids, that could have been any older than four or five, walk in.

Of course right away they run over to daze into the playroom. After a few seconds they averted their attention to the toys available in happy meals. As they were scoping those toys out, the little boys’ mom walks over to check out the toys with them. He points out a toy he wants to his mom, but the second after he pointed to one placed in the ‘pink’ section his mom suggested something in the ‘blue’ section.

It was interesting to see just how fast the mom was okay with reinenforcing the image children are supposed to accept as boy and girl. However, right after she suggested a ‘boy’ toy, shouted for the other little kid, whom was a girl, about how he wanted the lion, that was in the ‘girl’ section.

While this scenario interested me, I’m sad to report I did not get to find out the final decision on the toy the little boy received. But it was interesting to sit there and ponder. I thought to myself on what my reaction would be and how I would handle it. Would I reject his decision to get a ‘girl’ toy just because we as a society are told anything that isn’t manly or is pink, isn’t okay for a little boy to play with? It’s some interesting food for thought. We discriminate just because we think colors represent something bigger than what they are.