He-Man wasn't any more targeted at boys than Transformers was. She-Ra was the most overtly gendered (being a "girl version" of an existing show) but it wasn't

He-Man wasn't any more targeted at boys than Transformers was. She-Ra was the most overtly gendered (being a "girl version" of an existing show) but it wasn't any more targeted at girls than My Little Pony was. Many cartoons in the 80s were just ads selling toys that were intended to be sold in either the blue aisle or the pink aisle. Growing up I watched both He-man and She-Ra, in fact I thought She-Ra was the better show since it had a somewhat darker tone than He-Man did, but I didn't know any boys who owned She-Ra toys. Jem and the Holograms was supposed to sell fashion dolls sold in the pink aisle (competing with Barbie), but the show itself was specifically written with lots of action to keep boys interested so they wouldn't change the channel and prevent their sisters from watching.