Greeting Card Analysis

Abstract

This paper explores and defines many interrelating connections between social influences on gender through the use of greeting cards. From the various connections made about the relationship between baby boys and baby girls through the media, this paper draws a fine line between the media’s perspective and the social and cultural differences in society. This paper examines the greeting cards sold at Dollarama closely, outlining the major types of images, the colour schemes, written messages and as well as the overall tone of each card selected.

Pink or Blue? - Greeting Card Analysis of Influential Factors

Numerous times throughout the years on various occasions people have to buy greeting cards. Regardless of the occasion, a greeting card accompanies any sort of gift or celebration, whether it be for an academic achievement, birthday celebration or a wedding anniversary. Focusing closely on baby showers and newborn baby occasions, there is a wide variety of selection of greeting cards at Dollarama. However, there are contradictions between pink and blue baby greeting cards. With various media perspectives and taking the social and cultural influences into account one can understand the relationships between gender-colour associations.

Firstly, looking at the overall selection of the cards,

there was a similar trend between the types of images on the greeting cards specifically for a newborn baby. Out of the entire section, there were only two gender neutral cards compared to the number of gendered cards. However, this was just one store. This may vary from store to store, as each store varies its merchandise.
Looking closely at the first greeting card in Appendix A, a normal person would most likely pick this card out to buy if they know they are expecting a baby boy. This is a gendered card for the male sex. The card has an overall colour scheme of yellow and blue and a little bit of green. The blue coloured shoes for an infant depict that this card is for a baby boy. The blue baby shoes symbolize some innocency and delicacy of an infant. There is a written message on the cover of the greeting card and as well as the inside. The message written on the cover is a short rhyming poem. It clearly uses the words “boy” and the pronoun “he” to showcase that it is a male gendered card. The overall tone is that it has male likeness features but as well soft-side to include the age factor.
The second card shown in Appendix A, is a baby girl version of the previous card. A shopper would pick this card out for a female child. The colours pink, white and yellow all symbolize that this is a female gendered greeting card. The written message is different than the male gendered greeting card. It is slightly more sweeter, as it is imposing the world’s typical stereotypes. The message is written in a poetic way which is similar to the baby boy gendered greeting card. It also uses female pronouns, which show that it is female gendered greeting card. The overall tone of the card is happy and accepting the baby girl. In many parts of the world there are societies which discriminate boys from girls. For an example, when a boy is born in one of these “developing countries” friends and family gather congratulating and celebrating, while if it is a baby girl that is born, they start weeping and cursing the child.(“Gender Discrimination”) Gender discrimination can have an effect on the type of gendered greeting cards that are sold in a specific society. In a Canadian society, there is none to very little gender discrimination, due to the Charter of Human Rights.
Thirdly, the third and fourth greeting cards shown in Appendix A, are both gendered greeting cards.

The third greeting card is a male gendered greeting card that has an overall blue colour scheme, whereas the fourth greeting card is a female gendered greeting card that has an overall pink and white colour scheme. The male gendered card has cars and baby boy toys while the female gendered card has a teddy bear. The written messages in both of the cards is very similar in terms that is written in a poetic way. The overall tone for the third and fourth greeting card is showcasing a congratulating joyful moment in one’s life with the birth of a

newborn.
Another example of a gendered card is the fifth greeting card in Appendix A. It is a male gendered card using a blue colour scheme with a bit of yellow. The front of the card has a few cars. The written message on the front of the fifth greeting card is “Boy, oh boy, oh boy!” It is telling the shopper that is male gendered card, and if the newborn baby is boy then they should think about purchasing this greeting card. The overall tone of this greeting card is also cute, catchy and happy.
In addition to all the discussed male and female gendered greeting cards, there was an another discrete category of gender neutral greeting cards at Dollarama for newborn babies. Through naturalistic observation one can compare and contrast gender neutral cards to gendered cards. Looking at the sixth greeting card in Appendix, one can observe that it is a gender neutral card. From examining the colour scheme as well as the written message inside one can easily distinguish this greeting card from the gendered greeting cards. The colour scheme of this card was mainly pale yellow, green and white. The written message uses the term “baby” instead of specific pronouns, such as “he” or “she” to indicate that it is an unisex greeting card. On the front cover of the greeting there is a window, and in front of the window there is a baby crib with a toy giraffe. This toy baby giraffe indicates that it is a unisex toy, therefore it goes along with the overall idea of the card being neutral gender.
The last two cards in Appendix A are both neutral gendered cards. There are both similar in this sense. The second last greeting card in the appendix, has a colour scheme of purple, yellow and grey. On the front of the card, there is a baby bottle, baby rattle and a baby carriage. These images are associated with both the male gender and female gender. The message also indicates that it is a neutral gender greeting card as it uses “baby” and no specific pronouns. The overall tone of this card is new hopes, dreams and new happiness that comes along with a newborn child. The last greeting card in the Appendix A has a colour scheme of yellow, green, and purple. On the cover of the greeting card there are stuffed animals. These animals include: giraffe, lion, elephant and teddybear. The written message also uses the idea of that a newborn baby comes with new hopes, and desires. The overall tone of the card is new happiness.
Pink is mainly associated with the female gender, while the colour blue is associated with the male gender. By observing the neutral gender cards, one can observe many similarities between them. For an example, the neutral gender cards mainly used the colour yellow, green, purple or grey. The reason behind this is that none of these colours are related to one specific gender. In other words both sexes related to these colours. At Dollarama, when looking at the quantities of gendered greeting cards to neutral gender greeting cards, there were way more gendered greeting cards for sale than neutral gender greeting cards. This can be due to many influential factors, such as social and cultural differences, as well as business related factors. Maybe more people buy gender specific greeting cards than gender neutral greeting cards. However the cause of this cannot be guaranteed until further research is conducted.