“Make-up and Hot Pink Toe Nails- Not Just a Girl Thing”

“Make-up and Hot Pink Toe Nails- Not Just a Girl Thing”

            “The values and norms of a society are framed by the branded images and lifestyles consciously and carefully constructed by advertisers seeking to maximize profit.” After reading this article, I could not get this statement out of my head.  When you look at our society today, you think of boys playing with leggos, trains, and trucks; boys’ rooms in colors such as blue, green, or red; and girls liking pink, Barbie’s, and princesses.  This is the “norm” in our society. On the flipside, if we had boys playing with the dolls and the girls playing with trucks in their red bedrooms, our society is quick to judge and discriminate against this.  This is immediately forbidden to happen, so it normally doesn’t.  As we get older, the same lifestyle trends carry on. They stick with us because they become habits.  These normal life trends are literally everywhere.  Not only do we learn this through our parents and family, but it’s as if they tattooed on our culture. These “normal” styles and trends are seen on television, through all advertisements, magazines, and the list just goes on.

In society, everyone wants to force their kids to grow and be socially accepted so they imbed these false images and beliefs in the minds of everyone.  Most people feel it is not okay for their young sons to be interested in make-up, dolls, and pink tutu’s.   Melanie Klein states in her article, “As a tragic example further down in this post will show, these normal, healthy childhood curiosities and small pleasures are usually quickly beaten out of boys, figuratively and literally.” These social expectations have gone to far and are becoming more and more dangerous.  In Klein’s article, she states that a 17-month year old boy is beaten to death for being too “girly”, 5 year old boys are accused of being gay from simply wearing a “girl” Halloween costume, boys in pink causes headline news, and a high school football player is kicked off the field for wearing pink cleats during breast cancer awareness week.

This is why Melanie Klein refers to a J. Crew advertisement of a young boy and his mother together painting their toenails hot pink as a, “breath of fresh air.” This advertisement shows that the color pink isn’t just for girls, as well as many other colors that are classified and separated with gender.  Advertisements play one of the biggest roles in classifying and constructing what the social “norm” is and shaping who we are based on society’s rules and perceptions.  Melanie Klein is right when talking about the positive feedback the J. Crew advertisement portrays when she says, “It expands the range of possibility for what girls and boys can do and be.”