Female Macy's parade balloon

[Liberal_in_LA]

The NY Daily has this Photo gallery of Macy's day balloons of the past. http://www.nydailynews.com/news/galleries/entertainment/entertainment.html I'm flipping thru the photos
and I notice that they are overwhelmingly male characters. The population is about 50% female. Women now make up a significant portion of celebrities, politicians, workers, and civic leaders so why are the ballons overwhelmingly male? Kind of reminds me of the world of smurf which had one female smurf.

Here are two female balloons I found.

[KittyWampus]

1. young girls are much more willing to accept male characters than boys are to accept female.

Male monkeys prefer boys' toys

17:28 04 April 2008 by Ewen Callaway
It's thought of as a sexual stereotype: boys tend to play with toy cars and diggers, while girls like dolls. But male monkeys, suggests research, are no different (see a related video report).

This could mean that males, whether human or monkey, have a biological predisposition to certain toys, says Kim Wallen, a psychologist at Yerkes National Primate Research Center in Atlanta, Georgia.

Wallen's team looked at 11 male and 23 female rhesus monkeys. In general the males preferred to play with wheeled toys, such as dumper trucks, over plush dolls, while female monkeys played with both kinds of toys.

This conclusion may upset those psychologists who insist that sex differences - for example the tendency of boys to favour toy soldiers and girls to prefer dolls - depend on social factors, not innate differences.

"A five-year-old boy whose compatriots discover has a collection of Barbies is likely to take a lot of flak," Wallen says.

Social factors undoubtedly influence children's preferences, he says, but in general boys tend to be pickier with toys than girls.



http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13596

[NashVegas]

2. ..

..

nevermind that

[Political_Junkie]

8. oh, o.k.,

was just about to respond when you edited. I found your topic interesting.

[NashVegas]

10. Sorry

In light of the additions to the thread, it seemed like a bad place for it.

I'll get back to it, when I have more down. Or a publisher :)

[Political_Junkie]

11. K, let me know.

i'd be interested. :)

[Sanity Claws]

3. Hello Kitty

She's definitely a female cat.
If you're limiting your theory to just human or human-type characters, I really don't think there are that many. However, they are still predominantly male.

[Liberal_in_LA]

4. No, not limiting to human, haven't watched the parade lately, thanks for adding

Hello Kitty to the list.

[MichellesBFF]

5. Chloe the clown

That's a girl's name...

[gollygee]

7. Blue from Blue's Clues

she's a girl puppy.

[onenote]

6. this year there were 13 "giant" balloons

Three were plainly female characters: Dora, Abby Cadabby and Hello Kitty. While the rest were male, its not as it there were a lot of male "human" characters -- Buzz Lightyear and Ronald McDonald come to mind. The others were animals (Kermit, Beethoven, Horton) or made up characters, like Smurfs and the pokemon character. I don't know squat about pokemon, so I can't tell you whether picachu is male or female.

I doubt its any sort of plot. Indeed, in terms of live performers, there were a lot of female participants, including Kristen Chenoweth, Charise, Miley Cyrus, etc.

[JackRiddler]

9. It wouldn't be a plot, you know...

It would be an expression of widespread social norms.

[Charlie Brown]

12. Do they still have the Raggedy Ann balloon?

I seem to remember that from ages ago when I watched the parade as a kid, or maybe i just imagined it.

[alfredo]

13. Betty Boop is sitting on his face. Mr Boop will not be amused.