作者：Sande Chen

在上个月的Digital Kids大会上，有位座谈小组成员讨论称一项针对5岁儿童的非正式调查显示，这一群体通常会将带有蓝色图标的手机应用视为“男孩”游戏，而粉色的则是“女孩”游戏。男孩不会点击粉色应用图标，即使这个图标上有一个巨大的机器人图案。由此我发现这个社会仍然存在固有的色彩分类思维。Kids Industries的一项研究表明，父母可能就是强化这一性别划分惯例的根源。该座谈会指出这种颜色划分法在30年前并没有如此盛行，当时市场向孩子们推广的游戏更为中立性。

尽管有93%的家长声称自己是根据类型（如活动）而非性别（制造商或零售商的标注）来购买游戏，85%的家长仍然表示自己不会给男孩购买粉色的厨房玩具，除非这些玩具是中性的颜色。他们实际上更喜欢性别中立的包装。在这次大会展开期间，应用商店排名前三的儿童应用所采用的图标既非粉色也非蓝色，而是亮橙色这种性别中立的颜色。

girlygamesonline(from girlgameapps)

虽然沃尔玛这些零售商还是有蓝色和粉色玩具分类架，今天多数热门儿童游戏网站并不会专门针对粉色或“女孩”游戏进行分类，而是根据兴趣（如穿着打扮）来划 分游戏。我认为在过去，女孩游戏的分类是为了鼓励女孩去体验网络游戏，你仍然可以在FreekIGames上看到针对女孩的特殊标签。如果你去看 GirlsGoGames（游戏邦注：主打针对女孩的游戏），就会发现大面积的粉色。

我们是否该保留游戏中大量的粉色调？我们应该对游戏进行男孩和女孩的分类吗？家长很警惕市场营销人员所带来的影响。男孩也许会喜欢玩美发沙龙的游戏，但却不会去碰明显是粉色或者标注为女孩游戏的应用。优秀的游戏应该能够同时兼容两种性别。

girls game(from appchina)

在我看来，瞄准女孩的游戏通常会锁定时尚、购物、化妆，烹饪及其他与女性相关活动这种强化性别色彩的特点。这些玩法内容加上粉色无疑延续了人们之前的性别色彩分类思维，即：

粉色=女孩=现成的性别角色

市场营销会影响我们的选择，但我们应该思考这些选择可能对孩子造成的影响。家长并不一定需要顺从市场营销人员的预期。

我想知道：我们是否仅仅是根据时尚、购物、化妆等内容为女孩制造玩具？

涉及探索空间的游戏对于男孩女孩都适用，它并不需要是蓝色或是粉色的。我并不认为我们必须将游戏标注为女孩游戏，就好像我们并不需要指出玩家的性别一样。也许是时候结束粉色女孩游戏这种营销思维了？（本文由游戏邦编译，转载请注明来源，或咨询微信zhengjintiao）

Color-Coded Pink and Blue

by Sande Chen

[This article originally appeared on Game Design Aspect of the Month under the topic of Diversity]

At last month’s Digital Kids Conference, a panelist discussing gender barriers revealed that when 5-year-olds were informally surveyed, they tended to identify mobile app icons with the color blue as “boy” games and those with pink as “girl” games.  Boys would not click on a pink app even with a big robot on the icon.   I find it surprising that as a society, we are still so color-coded.  This superficial reskinning from blue to pink can really change the appeal to boys or girls.  According to a research study by Kids Industries, parents may be the ones reinforcing these gender conventions.  The panel noted that this labeling of pink or blue wasn’t so prevalent 30 years ago when marketing to kids tended to be more gender neutral.

This year’s Girl Toy of the Year

Even though 93% of parents say they shop by category (i.e. activity) rather than gender (as labeled by the manufacturer or retailer), 85% of the parents said they would not buy a pink kitchen toy for a boy, but had no qualms about buying the same product for a boy if it was in gender neutral colors.  They would in fact prefer gender neutral packaging.  The top 3 grossing kid apps at the time of the conference had neither pink or blue icons, but stuck to gender neutral colors like light orange.

This year’s Boy Toy of the Year and Toy of the Year

While retailers like Wal-Mart definitely have pink and blue toy aisles, most popular kid game sites nowadays do not have a section for pink or “girl” games but rather, will categorize games of interest as dress-up, etc. games.  I think in the past, separate sections for girl games were created to encourage girls to play Web games and you can still see a special tab for girl games on FreeKIGames.  If you take a look at GirlsGoGames, which features games obviously marketed to girls, you’ll notice a lot of pink.

Must we keep the Pink Ghetto for games?  Do we need to label games as girl or boy games?  Parents feel uneasy about the influence of marketers.  Boys can enjoy playing a hair salon game app, but won’t touch one that is overly pink or labeled for girls.  A good game can appeal to both genders.

It seems to me that games marketed to girls tend to reinforce gender stereotypes by focusing on fashion, shopping, make-up, cooking and other stereotypically female activities.   Surrounding all these play activities with the color pink allows the color code to continue.

Pink = Girl = Existing Gender Roles.

Marketing does influence our choices, but we can stop and think about how these choices may affect our children.  Parents do not need to follow the expectations of marketers.

I wonder:  Are we giving girls toys solely based on fashion, shopping, make-up etc. and not toys promoting STEM skills?

A game about space exploration could be marketed to girls and to boys and it doesn’t even have to be pink or blue.  I don’t think we need to label any game a girl game, just like we don’t need to label a gamer a girl gamer.  Is it time to end this marketing convention of pink girl games?（source：gamasutra）