Photographer documents gender stereotypes as studies show how kids’ perception can be manipulated

Photographer JeonMee Yoon is using books, toys, clothing and more to capture the pervasiveness of kids’ color-coded gender roles.  

In an illustrative photo series, Yoon, a South Korea-based photographer, conveys the ubiquity of a simple and often unspoken rule: blue for boys and pink for girls.  

As reported by Wired, Yoon’s work, titled Pink and Blue Project, which began in 2005, initially inspired by her own daughter, is intended  not just as a showcase of pervasive gender roles through kids’ color-coded belongings, but as a dissection of the effectiveness of the marketing, or ‘objectification,’ behind the phenomenon. 

‘I ask each model to sustain a blank, neutral expression to underline an ‘objectification’ of each child, and I request various poses to heighten the differences in gender and personal characteristics among my subjects,’ Yoon told Wired. 

Yoon's work aims to highlight the forces behind the color-coding by gender and its ubiquity in kids' toys. Pictured: Agnes in 2015

Yoon’s work aims to highlight the forces behind the color-coding by gender and its ubiquity in kids’ toys. The project began in 2005 and revisited the kids over the years. Pictured: Agnes in 2009 and 2015

Children selected in Yoon’s work — a group from New York, New Jersey, and Seoul whom she was given permission to photograph — were also photographed five and 10 years later in the third iteration of the project. 

According to researchers, the power of color-coded marketing which is conveyed vividly through Yoon’s photos is also backed by science and extends beyond western culture and into Asia.

In a a study of 139 pre-school aged children in Hong Kong published in Springer journal Sex Roles, researchers found that the preference for color outshone most other difference between respondents. 

‘Our findings support the notion that gender-typed liking for pink versus blue is a particularly salient gender difference,’ said one of the authors, Sui Ping Yeung. 

‘Moreover, our findings reveal that gender differences could be created merely by applying gender labels.’ 

Things weren't always blue for boys and pink for girls. According to reports in an American newspaper from 1918, it used to be the other way around. Pictured: Noelle in 2006
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Things weren't always blue for boys and pink for girls. According to reports in an American newspaper from 1918, it used to be the other way around. Pictured: Noelle in 2015

Things weren’t always blue for boys and pink for girls. According to reports in an American newspaper from 1918, it used to be the other way around.  Some dramatically changed their preferences with age, as shown above. Pictured: Noelle in 2006 and 2015

In Blue and Pink JeongMee Yoon's photos focuses on gender-based marketing by documenting kids as in five year intervals. Pictured: Kihun in 2007
In Blue and Pink JeongMee Yoon's photos focuses on gender-based marketing by documenting kids as in five year intervals. Pictured: Kihun in 2018

In Blue and Pink JeongMee Yoon’s photos focuses on gender-based marketing by documenting kids as in five year intervals. Pictured: Kihun in 2007 and 2018 

Outside of merely influencing color-preference, researchers note that gender-based marketing of toys like blue for boys and pink for girls may also influence the behavior and perceptions of children as they age.

If a certain genre of toy is made blue — like a police car or a stethoscope — it could reinforce the career’s associated with those toys as being a profession for men or women. 

In some cases, explicit guidance on gender in toys can even influence kids’ performance the research suggest. In the study, puzzles labeled as ‘for boy’ tended to result in males outperforming their female counterparts.

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Reticence over gendered toys has centered on their effect on how children view the world. In some cases it can even affect performance says research. Pictured: Michael 2009
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Reticence over gendered toys has centered on their effect on how children view the world. In some cases it can even affect performance says research. Pictured: Michael in 2015

Reticence over gendered toys has centered on how they effect kids’ view the world. In some cases it can even affect performance in certain tasks, says research. Pictured: Michael 2009 and 2015

Color-coding in products can transcend the realm of kids and is present in products we know and buy as adults. In some cases, the same products are adorned in pink to better market to women

Color-coding in products can transcend the realm of kids and is present in products we know and buy as adults. In some cases, the same products are adorned in pink to better market to women

Traditionally, while boys were given army helmets and guns, girls were given baby dolls and barbies in what some say reinforces negative gender stereotypes

 Traditionally, while boys were given army helmets and guns, girls were given baby dolls and barbies in what some say reinforces negative gender stereotypes

‘It is possible to create a gender difference in young children by simply labeling, arbitrarily, something as for boys and something else as for girls,’ co-author Wang Ivy Wong told PsyPost in 2018. 

‘Gender labelling, by explicit gender terms or by color, not only affects preferences but also performance.’

According to a report in the British Journal of Photography, in America the popularity of blue for boys and pink for girls originally rose after the first World War and prior to that the colors were marketed the other way around.

‘Use pink for the boy and blue for the girl, if you are a follower of convention,’ wrote the Sunday Sentinel, an American newspaper in 1914.

From tweezers to tool kits, how does gender marketing change our brains?

Children as young as four are able to label everyday objects as male (such as a hammer) or female (lipstick), as well as boy or girl toys. 

But is it surprising when you find out that a boy’s toy cupboard is likely to be different from a girl’s from as young as five months, not because of the infant’s choice (they are too young to say) but because of what a parent or friend/relative chooses for them. 

Many will be coded by colour, too.

Tweezerman¿s G.E.A.R tweezer and neon pink version, both £22

Tweezerman¿s G.E.A.R tweezer and neon pink version, both £22

Tweezerman’s G.E.A.R tweezer and neon pink version, both £22

This bright pink £10.77 hose from Hozelock also comes in yellow

This bright pink £10.77 hose from Hozelock also comes in yellow

This bright pink £10.77 hose from Hozelock also comes in yellow

Pink has become a code for all things ‘girly’. It’s not the colour itself that’s the problem, but what it’s come to signify: girly means soft and emotionally fragile, constantly in need of rescue, eye-rollingly incompetent at anything technical.

As campaigners against gendered toys have pointed out, pink toys are almost always associated with dressing up, or with domestic activities such as cooking, or looking after fluffy pets or baby dolls. No problem with that, but it also means these little princesses are not pretending to be super heroes or playing with creative construction toys.

And ideas about what children will think is suitable for them are fixed very early on. Sometimes pink appears to ‘give permission’ for girls to engage with what would otherwise be seen as a boy domain, such as science, technology or engineering. 

The tools in the Apollo 39 Piece Pink Ladies Home Tool Kit, £19.99, are the same as its ¿macho¿ black kit, £17.99 ¿ both from amazon.co.uk

The tools in the Apollo 39 Piece Pink Ladies Home Tool Kit, £19.99, are the same as its ¿macho¿ black kit, £17.99 ¿ both from amazon.co.uk

The tools in the Apollo 39 Piece Pink Ladies Home Tool Kit, £19.99, are the same as its ‘macho’ black kit, £17.99 — both from amazon.co.uk

Radox¿s ¿heroic¿ for men and ¿glam¿ for women shower gels, £2.25

Radox¿s ¿heroic¿ for men and ¿glam¿ for women shower gels, £2.25

Radox’s ‘heroic’ for men and ‘glam’ for women shower gels, £2.25

Mattel has produced a Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) Barbie doll to stimulate girls’ interest in becoming scientists. And yet what is it that our Engineer Barbie can build? Not a computer, or a car.

Instead, it’s a pink washing machine, a pink rotating wardrobe or a pink jewellery carousel.

To me it seems ‘pinkification’ is all too often linked with a patronising undertow, implying you can’t get females to engage with the thrills of engineering or science unless you can link them to ‘looks and lipstick’. You don’t have to spend long in a supermarket or trawling the internet to find pointlessly gendered products for adults, as well as children.

Wilkinson¿s Quattro three-pack razors for women cost £6.25 and its three-pack for men, £5.89

Wilkinson¿s Quattro three-pack razors for women cost £6.25 and its three-pack for men, £5.89

Wilkinson’s Quattro three-pack razors for women cost £6.25 and its three-pack for men, £5.89

 

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