Pink for girls? What a shock!

Sign on Kinder Surprise display at Shoppers Drug Mart

Kinder Surprise eggs at Shoppers Drug Mart

Last week I saw this display at my local Shoppers Drug Mart. Kinder Surprise has now licensed two very popular brands from Mattel.

To sell more eggs to girls Kinder has licensed Barbie, and to sell more eggs to boys the firm licensed Hot Wheels.

And how are the different eggs distinguished? Pink for girls.

Is pink for girls a self-fulfilling prophecy? My daughter has lots of pink clothes, and a couple of Barbie dolls, but at the moment her favourite underwear is covered with images of Thomas the Tank Engine. In addition to a treasure chest full of dolls and stuffed animals, she also building blocks and about 100 cars and trucks in her room.

When playing with cars she does not care about colour, except to say that the fire trucks should be all be red. We don't have pink fire trucks for girls, so when trying to see to little girls why does everything else need to be pink?