13-Year-Old Girl Asks Easy Bake Oven To End Sexist Ads:

[Moonwalk]

59. Uber-pinkness can be traced to Disney and the popularity of princesses in the late 90's early 00's..

...For whatever reason (perhaps because of Disney movies of the 90's created new "princesses" like the little Mermaid, etc., and had heroines who little girls could identify with) there was a "girly" zeitgeist involving little girls wanting uber-girly things--All American Girl dolls, Disney Princesses, etc. This brought in so much money (as with Barbie, there were accessories, special teas, special beauty parlors, stores), that toy companies gave up on trying to be gender neutral and went into gender-over-drive, especially in regards to the ultra feminine. Which usually meant making things pink, lavender, and decked with hearts or flowers. Toy Story 2 actually joked about this when the toys are wandering through Al's Toy Barn and find themselves down an aisle that is all pink. Not only were girls toys retro-ed back to pink and stereotypically feminine, but toys for girls were also segregated. The toy makers and stores were to blame for this new wave of gender bias, but, to be fair, they were just doing what is done in our society whenever something catches on. They went after what would make them money. If little girls at that time wanted to be princesses, with frilly dresses and everything pretty and pink, then that is what the toy makers and stores would provide.

The irony, of course, was that these new princesses started off as strong heroines for girls to identify with, but went sideways down the "I want to wear pretty dresses and a tiara" path; and as popularity breeds more of whatever seems to be popular, this snowballed into more movies, like the Princess Diaries, which re-inforced the idea of little girls wanting frilly princess-y things. And the further irony is that grown women were on board as well. What was "Sex and the City" but stories of uber-feminine "princesses" with closets full of pretty dresses, focusing only on romance and expensive lunches?

Of course, the princess frenzy is dying down if not dead (recent princess movies from "The Princess and the Frog" to "Tangled" to "Brave" haven't fared well. Girls seem to be going for poor heroines like the one in Hunger Games). But the princess phenomena was so easy to make and market, that it's hard for makers and marketers to give it up. Until something equal easy to make and market to little girls becomes wildly popular, they won't give up hoping that the pink princess stuff can still make them money. Nor are they going to give a second thought to the message it sends to both girls and boys.