Pink Pots and Preteens

I definitely needed a little humor to brighten my day this morning, seeing as all of my friends from home had today off but at Duke, classes were still in session. It was in reading chapter 3 of Orenstein’s book that I found the thing that made me chuckle:

“The Disney Princesses reigned over a new pink Royal Interactive Kitchen with accompanying pink Royal Appliances and pink Royal Pots and Pans set (though I would have thought one of the perks of monarchy would be that someone else did the cooking)” (33).

I guess I should preface this blog post by saying that I HATE cooking and cleaning. I would want to be a princess just for the sole reason of never having to cook or clean. But unfortunately, becoming a princess is not something I can bank on. I am going to have to cook and clean whether I like it or not.

Orenstein doesn’t really like the idea of all of these objects being pink. She says on page 34 that pink is “such a tiny slice of the rainbow, and, though it may celebrate girlhood in one way, it also repeatedly and firmly fuses girls’ identity to appearance.” I disagree with this claim.

I think it’s more than okay to have pink things. It’s a bright and beautiful color. It makes me happy to look at. I’d much rather wash pink dishes or use a pink plunger in my bathroom. The color itself makes doing a dreadful task somewhat easier. Why should we subject ourselves to having less enjoyment in our lives in order to make a statement about consumer feminism? Girls already have to do most of the housework (traditionally), so we might as well do it with beautiful appliances.

Another part of the chapter that I found to be quite interesting was the development of the “toddler” and “tween” phases. Both were coined as marketing contrivances in order to increase sales and segregate girls’ and boys’ clothing earlier. According to Orenstein on page 37, “Within ten years, it was considered a full-blown psychological, physical, and emotional phase.”

I thought that these phases had originated from science, marked by significant changes in the body. To find out that they originated as mere marketing techniques made me feel a bit stupid. I had been duped by the power of consumerism. However, so had the rest of the world. It always makes me feel better to know that other people got tricked like I did :) .

In my opinion, the moral of the story is not to underestimate the lengths that companies will go to in order to make a profit off of you. They literally invented stages of life and tricked us all!