Messages That Depict Us from Conception to Birth

            Enter card store; approach section that hosts anticipated arrivals, new births, and congratulatory wishes for the new family addition.  Immediately the eye is bombarded with shades of pinks and blues.  A few yellows and greens are thrown in to cover the unknowns.  No need to look further, it is made very easy for us to go to the correct section to pick out the correct card.  Or is it dictated as to which ones we should choose from?  There are no duplicate designs with just the color change each style card gives off a totally different message for each gender choice.  The neutral card choices offer very ordinary and limited messages, nothing specific just plain and simple.  I guess those infants are just left in the middle somewhere until they have a gender type, after all they need one of those don’t they?

            Scanning through the pink section all are directed to parents that are either expecting or have just been blessed with a “cute” little girl.  According to Jennifer Bourn, a marketing branding specialist, the color pink is “a delicate color that means sweet, nice, playful, cute, romantic, charming, feminine, and tenderness.” (Bourn, BournCreative, 2010) Is this the beginning of her destiny and who she is to become?  What must she live up to?  How difficult will it be for her when she wants to start to wear blue or better yet black?  The front of the cards are laced with pictures of hearts, flowers, baby animals, carriages that hold a baby dressed in… you guessed it, pink or the depiction of an angelic baby with a halo above her head.  Then we have the different adjectives that shine across the card in glitter and bows.  Descriptive words adorn the front of the card such as cute, marvel, love, beauty, treasure, darling and angel.  Must she live up to these words?  Is her fate sealed in the eyes of the parents because the card says so?  Will she start to disappoint her parents if she steps out of the descriptive titles that have been hailed upon her?

            Jump to the baby boy cards.  We see the color blue, different shades, and different depths.  Blue has been depicted to symbolize “strength, depth, trust, loyalty, sincerity, wisdom, confidence, stability, faith, heaven, and intelligence,” according to Bourn. (Bourn, BournCreative, 2011) The adjectives noted on these cards are Macho Baby, BOY = Brilliant, Obedient and Youthful, pride, wonder, adventures and exploring. What a different fate for this young child than that of the baby girl.  Wouldn’t everyone want to be getting a card from the blue section, it states so much more.

            When did the color coding of infants come into play?  According to Natalie Wolchover from Live Science, “It wasn't until after the Second World War that the modern convention (pink for girls, blue for boys) started to dominate, and even so, it didn't "gel" until the 1980s… Philip Cohen, a sociologist also at the University of Maryland, thinks they are, essentially, the outcome of a marketing ploy.” (Wolchover, 2012)   What a surprise this is.  Of course, what a brilliant idea, this way we can sell paint for bedrooms, crib and baby room decorations, and toys specific to gender by color depiction.  We can sell not just one brown teddy bear but now two, one pink and one blue. 

Before WWII infants were dressed quite similar we didn’t need the help of color coding to assist us in the knowledge that a baby human existed or to tell us what sex it was.  Were we smarter then?  After all they do have names and specific body parts which signify if they are male or female.  Children grow, change and we can see with our own eyes who they ultimately become; we don’t necessarily need a color or label to guide us.  After all aren't we all human first, our specific body parts signify us as to what sex we are but nothing should outline what gender we identify with.  There is no rule book on what a "male" is, does or should be, and in the same respect, nothing should outline what a "female" is, does or should be.  I'm a female who loves to get dressed up pretty and display my femininity.  I enjoy cooking, the ballet, theater, being a mother and having a clean house as well.  At the same time, I will dig in the dirt, go to a farm to pick up Alpaca poo for my garden, fix a leaky faucet, lift things, work hard, use tools, I'm intelligent, goal oriented, love a challenge and more.  I would say I'm human!  All of the other parts of me are just that, parts of who I am not because I'm a woman and not a man; it has nothing to do with that but everything to do with what I enjoy... Life and just being me, I don't need any color coding for that.

Works Cited

Bourn, J. (2010, November 10). BournCreative. Retrieved February 15, 2015, from The Bourn Creative Website: http://www.bourncreative.com/meaning-of-the-color-pink/

Bourn, J. (2011, January 15). BournCreative. Retrieved February 15, 2015, from The Bourn Creative Website: http://www.bourncreative.com/meaning-of-the-color-blue/

Wolchover, N. (2012, August 1). Live Science. Retrieved February 16, 2015, from The Live Science Website: http://www.livescience.com/22037-pink-girls-blue-boys.html

Will the Real “M” in Masked Man Stand Up in the Gender Battles

            Gender battles have existed throughout our history and will ultimately remain with us.  It is not something that is just going to evaporate and disappear.  In order to ease its negative effects that it can cast upon individuals, we must educate and enlighten ourselves.  We must learn its roots, utilize our critical thinking skills, understand how it is used against us and individually be strong within our own decision making processes in order to overcome its effects.  In doing so it will enable us to rise above the negativity gender labels create and eventually help to equal out the playing field.

            To begin this journey I had to start with looking at myself; was I raised with gender biased directives?  The answer is no, it was difficult for me to understand firsthand.  I had to dig deeper and phoned my brother as I wanted to be sure my memories were accurate.  Both of us concluded we were raised as “kids” simply put.  Although we were separated in years by 7 we each played with trains, went fishing, caught worms, sold lemonade, had teas, learned to clean, cook, and worked with tools etc.  I would say we were raised to be well rounded in all facets.  We were never told by our parents that we couldn’t do something based upon being male or female.  Entering the outside world and the expectations of others we found is where we hit walls along the way.  

            A couple of key words referenced in “The Gender Book” by Mel Reiff Hill and Jay Mays that stood out were “misconceptions” and “assumptions.”  I thought this to be key in describing one’s gender as it can only be described by the individual in question, one’s gender is their personal view of themselves, not their biological sex.  We do not have the right or knowledge to instill what or how we believe a person is or should be.  We do not live inside of them; when someone does take on that usurped power it is merely that of control over another.

            Gender roles and the ways they have been perceived; are presently perceived; and its perception in the future can be changed.  Let us go all the way back to the Bible where it speaks of “The Virtuous Woman” and King Lemuel is having a discussion with his son.  In line 3 he states  to his son “Give not thy strength unto women,” (The Bible, Proverb 31:3-31, King James Version) yet he later goes on to describe to his son a woman as being virtuous, trust worthy, honorable, wise, and strong.  Could it be that these traits if not belonging to a man were the cause for fear amongst men?  Perhaps it is, when we as humans feel out of control our desire is to control; power over another if necessary in order to make ourselves feel strong and secure.

            Jumping forward to the early 1900s a man by the name of Eddie Bernays arose bringing about the use of his uncle, Sigmund Freud’s, psychological theories to utilize propaganda, later termed public relations.  A far cry from biblical days, however it was he who got women to begin to smoke cigarettes, was that in the best interest of women or for more sales for the companies?  His theory was that the masses could be controlled by feeding them information to make them believe they were in control of their decisions and themselves.  Bernays once stated, “The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country…” (Durden, 20141)  These psychological practices began to be used all around us in advertisements, our news and incorporated into just about all of our decision making endeavors which are subliminally encouraged and controlled.  The effects surround us and have only multiplied. 

This trickledown effect burdens us all by the negative portrayal of women in video games as voiced by Anita Sarkeesian, to how and what women should wear, makeup, diets, and how they should strive to look.  However, it continues with men needing Viagra, dying their hair, getting hair transplants, taking steroids, proving their masculinity to be part of the crowd that is measured by how well they play violent video games and high scores; the lists can go on.  In order to gain control as individuals, we must each measure and look deeper to where the root of the problem lies.  The “M” in Media has such power over us all if we allow it and don’t question its validity, source and motive.  Maybe we should create a new word Wo-Men to create a unity of the two.  

Works Cited

Durden, T. (20141, December 30). ZeroHedge.com. Retrieved February 15, 2015, from Zero Hedge Website: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-12-30/edward-bernays-propaganda-theory-has-been-perfected

Per APA Bible passages only need to be cited in the text of paper; no reference list citation is required.