Disrupting the Pink Isle

Buzzfeed found a real gem today. I was pleasantly surprised. They linked a video geared towards recruiting more female engineers that was filled with so many little amazing components that i do not know if I can do it justice without you seeing it. So here's the link  http://www.buzzfeed.com/maycie/goldie-blox-rube-goldberg-beastie-boys-music-video


It starts out with three girls, not necessarily tom-boys, just normal girls in normal clothing reacting with absolute boredom to a commercial on television. The commercial is very familiar. Everything in the screen is pink and seems to be trying to sell either a tea party set or princess dresses; both obviously in various shades of pink. I really like this opening for two reasons. The first is that it mirrors the three girls on the screen with the three girls watching the television showing to me that the creator recognizes that there is a variety of tastes between women and both are acceptable. But at the same time their total boredom indicates that even kids, without any sort of knowledge of gender-ed toys and advertising, are able to break the conditioning and respond with indifference to the latest in tiara trends. Finally, I love that the girls make the choice to turn the television off themselves without an adult telling them that they should not like or be swayed by this coercive rose colored display. I'm not saying that I think this means that the fight is over against gender norms, but I think that children independently knowing that the system exists is a major step in dismantling early gender roles. In the same way that I think my mother's generation realized and distrusted racist and sexist remnants in society, despite the still racist and sexist opinions of my grandmother's generation, I think that this distrust shows that this generation is reacting against what the article calls the "pink isle". Finally, the visual power of using the pink engendered toys to create the Rube Goldberg that changes the channel, was very interesting. It was clearly not the intended purpose of the toys, so the act to me seemed very much like the girls were claiming the right to have an active and productive playtime reserved for boys.


The lyrics are just as fabulous.

Girls.
You think you know what we want, girls.Pink and pretty it's girls.Just like the 50's it's girls.
You like to buy us pink toysand everything else is for boysand you can always get us dollsand we'll grow up like them... false.
It's time to change.We deserve to see a range.'Cause all our toys look just the sameand we would like to use our brains.
We are all more than princess maids.
Girls to build the spaceship,Girls to code the new app,Girls to grow up knowingthey can engineer that.
Girls.
That's all we really need is Girls.
To bring us up to speed it's Girls.
Our opportunity is Girls.
Don't underestimate Girls.

The lyrics are perfect they hit the issue from so many angles. It reacts to the idea that pink being for girls is an old and dated concept. It comments that women will not just grow up to be dolls, all pretty and inanimate. They are functional, awesome, verbal, powerful people. It calls out gender norms saying that pink is for girls and the rest is all for boys. They critique the toy companies for remaking the same products in a new shade of pink or purple and reselling the product. Where boys have toy-boxes full of a train set, various balls, water guns, superheros, remote cars, building blocks, and other active playthings; girls are relegated to a dress up box where the only diversity comes from which Disney movie their princess costume was based off. It all looks the same and has the same function. The lyrics a call for more active stimulating toys that confirm they have brains. My favorite lyric is when the girl sings, "we are more than just princess maids" I respond strongly to it because it doesn't exclude traditional gender roles and ideas as inherently bad or beneath gender neutral toys. I suppose it has a lot to do with being raise in a very pink and blue household to this day, but I dislike the idea that women or men should have to reject an activity they do enjoy simply because it is within the scope of traditional gender roles. If a girl really loves and is passionate at cheer, telling her she is lesser for not choosing to fight to play football is just as restrictive a standard.

The only time that I think that the video was anything but wonderful was a very small moment when the girls are gathering the supplies to get started and you see the tool kit that they girls plan to use. It is yellow and covered with flowers. So in my mind, either she had this tool kit which suggests that she was being sold diverse toys (even if it is covered in stupid flowers) which undermines the point that she was so restricted, or she was given it by a producer because it was cute and cute girls fighting the power should have cute things to dismantle the big bad system. A neutral or more adult centered kit would have solved this problem for me.