Boys wear blue. Girls wear pink. Surely they must go back to the Middle Ages? Roman Empire, maybe? These colors have been so ingrained in the western cultural psyche they must have far-reaching traditional value.
Or maybe not.
The pink/blue standard goes beyond just color. Bows and baseballs both have their places in children’s dress. As do camouflage and ruffles. Usually, these aspects of clothing reflect the child’s interests or play activities, whether it’s “soldiers” or “princesses.”
Modern studies show that children recognize color and style differences starting around the age of two-and-a-half. Girls, generally, grow to form an affinity for the color pink and, conversely, boys develop an avoidance of the color. Thus gender norms
…show more content…
The color of the Virgin Mary. All seemingly crucial feminine qualities.
So the quote from Earnshaw’s plays upon these focuses but the fashion trends that influenced the “opposite” color assignment didn’t mean that people didn’t already dress their girls in pink and their boys in blue. They did.
Caption: Sarah Moulton (Pinkie) by Thomas Laurence; Blue Boy by Thomas Gainsborough
If we take a look at Thomas Lawrence’s Pinkie and Thomas Gainsborough’s Blue Boy, we see the color assignations with which we are familiar. Many times over, European artists of the 18th and early 19th centuries used pink to convey childhood, innocence and sweetness. Blue, on the other hand, conveyed confidence, intelligence, and loyalty.
So, it seems, the color lines were not yet drawn…. (sorry).
Toward the end of the 19th century the trend of dressing the cute little proto-masculine treasures in sailor suits gained popularity, blue started to cement its known gender allegiance.
By the 1940s, parents dressed their children in what we now see as the western traditional gendered colors. As the baby boom roared, the colors were seared into fashion
…show more content…
The children of this time wore more gender-neutral colors and steered the little baby fashion boat away from the binary pink/blue. It wasn’t until the 1980s, when prenatal technology first allowed for gender testing, that pink and blue came back in full force.
But where do pink and blue stand beyond Western cultures? A color study was done in China, Japan, Thailand, and Vietnam. The study overwhelmingly demonstrated that people usually chose some shade of pink (or variation) to convey femininity.
Caption: This chart demonstrates percentages of people who chose colors that most convey femininity. The numbers in the boxes are the numbers of people for each color.
In Western African countries, the color red dictates pink’s symbolism. Red is a masculine color and therefore pink is seen once more as “watered-down.” But this “red lite” interpretation does not go on to associate with boys. It is, however, seen as gentler and therefore feminine. The female version of red, as it were.
So the evolution of pink-for-girls and blue-for-boys is not linear, non-binary, and definitely not
Gender Stereotypes Among Children's Toys When you walk into the toy section of any store, you do not need a sign to indicate which section is on the girls’ side and which section is on the boys’ side. Aside from all the pink, purple, and other pastel colors that fill the shelves on the girls’ side, the glitter sticks out a lot as well. The boys’ toys, however, are mostly dark colors – blue, black, red, gray, or dark green. The colors typically used on either side are very stereotypical in themselves.
Lynn Peril writes a fascinating study of pink color and its historical connection to ideas and beliefs of femininity. Peril translates and defines Pink Think as collection of specific ideas, beliefs, and approaches of how and when is feminine behavior considered as proper. Throughout her book, Peril is pointing out various fundamental approaches and attitudes that are considered to be crucial for women achievements and accomplishments. Peril's Pink Think also advocates how greatest concern of femininity is related to women physical appearance (fashion and beauty) and their marriage (motherhood and housekeeper). Furthermore, Peril is demonstrating an evolution of femininity, and constant and intense impact of its norms and rules on women lives.
In Doc McStuffins, the main character, who was a female wore only pink and purple and used predominantly pink and purple things. This reinforces the stereotype that girls only seem to enjoy pink and purple. But one thing was the same, that each reinforced basic underlying stereotypes of what males and females should like. For example, in Doc McStuffins the boys were expected to like racecars, trucks and blue, whereas the girls liked pink and dolls. This supports the stereotype that girls enjoy wearing a pink frilly dress, as documented by Ruble in her examination of girls and their phenomenon with pink frilly dresses. Doc by using pink and purple items covered in glitter, reinforces the stereotype that girls only enjoy such items. In order to seem more realistic, like the outfits Emmy wears that are jeans and a blue shirt, Doc could try changing up her dress colors, if not wearing shorts depending on the weather in the show. This would imply and reinforce the ideal that girls do not only enjoy pink but can enjoy all colors, countering the
The start of change in children’s clothing started back in the late 18th century during the romantic period. People wanted to have the idea that children are a separate marvelous, terribly fragile, and innocent kind of creature that wants to have all the freedom and liberty that they can. As the Victorian age started there was a more structural way of everyone’s apparel. “It was very important that the girls wore short dresses and the ladies wore long dresses.” Many girls always had their hair down and then would put it up as their dress got longer and they got older. The idea was to start to dress young girls to look “innocent”. As the 21st century started girls started to dress like women and women started to dress like little girls. George writes, “A girl is a women by the time she’s 8 and a women remains a girl until she’s 80.” The idea was that
“You can’t wear that, pink is a girl color, and you’re a boy.” As rude as it sounds, it’s just what these innocent little girls
In the mid 1960s more and more women started to look like men (maga 103). Although the trousers suit for women was launched, people suspected that some of the inspiration of the way women started dressing came from father down the ...
Lynn Peril further mentions about the period of prosperous development of pink think during the 1940s to 1960s. In those years, pink think was considered as the obvious...
It doesn’t take hours of research to find the typical symbolism behind the most basic colors, white, and red among them. Brides wear white to symbolize purity or virtue. People give white roses as a token of the purity of the heart or the purity of their feelings. Red is associated with passion or love. Men buy the woman he loves, or wants to woe for the evening, red roses to...
Many of the toys I had consisted of pink frilly things that were given to me by my parents or other adults. My dolls were Bratz dolls that were full of different outfits and makeup, teaching me to worry about the way I looked. My animal related toys consisted of little plastic horses and farm animals that were always in “gender neutral colors”, they always came in a red pack and any accessories were always bright and yellow or green. While when I had a gender-neutral toy, a leapfrog leader, that had a distinction of being a girls because of the case being pink and purple, not in in of the “gender neutral” color categories. My sports toys were the same, my soccer balls and basket balls were not neural colors, but pink or purple,. I also played with “boy toys” like cars, footballs, baseballs, however none of these things were ever bought for me. If I asked for these “boy toys” I was told that they were for boys not for girls, experiencing cultural competence, because no adult in my life thought buying a girl those types of toys were
Even before the children are born, parents begin choosing clothing and decorations by color based on the sex of the baby. The stereotype of pink, pastels, yellow and white for girls and bright or dark colors like green, blue and red for boys has long been a part of our culture. How many times have you heard kids argue over toys because the girls don’t want the icky boy color or the boys don’t want the gross girl color? The issue of color may go deeper than just fighting for toys. Studies have been done showing that school classrooms, especially for younger grades, are typically decorated in “boy” colors and reflect an environment that is most comfortable for boys (Bruning 23). Parents and teachers may be able to help reverse this thinking by buying toys in gender neutral colors and by using the same colors for boys and girls.
Clothing also began to change dramatically; people began to rebel against societies ideas on what is appropriate making a revelation in variety of clothing men could choose from. Patterns such as checks, stripes and argyle also became widely used by fashion designers. Along with new patterns, colours also began to make an appearance with pastel colours also being used. Around the same time, a ‘pink rage’ took effect. This involved men wearing pink in their outfit through the form of tops and ties to help break gender stereotypes, which was a big issue at the time. Boys were expected to be strong, silent and assertive opposed to women who were portrayed as weak and emotional. They also expected women to be the least intelligent of the couple to help make the male feel smarter and more
The color red is of assertion, strength, romance, excitement, vitality and physical power. Red flatters the skin which may be why is was used on these Norwegian girls. The use of yellow for the hair and also on the dresses of the girls could be associated with light. It creates a feeling of hope, happiness, and wisdom. Blue is the color of the sea and sky, which is generally associated with the quality of openness. Blue is often a formal color which represents wisdom and steady character. It is considered a masculine color and the choice of corporate America, which is contradicting to it’s use in the sculpture of girls. Brown is the color of living wood and the earth. Rich, subtle and extraordinarily restful to look upon, brown creates a feeling of coolness and warmth at the same
From the time their children are babies, parents treat sons and daughters differently, dressing infants in gender-specific colors, giving gender-differentiated toys, and expecting differe...
The color-coded uniforms that the women wear does more than just signify their functions. Along with the names/titles of characters, they symbolize the individual's loss of identity. No distinguishing mark of a woman is considered; rather, she is lumped with a group in which she is defined only by her social and reproductive function. Essentially, the color-coded uniforms strip each woman of her i...
Men and women are both stereotyped based on their gender and it starts even before a child is born and is reinforced throughout their life. The parents and other close relatives start the stereotyping first. If a couple is having a girl, they will paint the baby’s room pink, purple or some other feminine color. However, a boy’s room would most likely be blue, green, red, or something more masculine. The couple is already stereotyping their baby based on gender before he or she is already born. Colors have become popular symbols for genders. For example, I work at the Hy-Vee bakery, and I often get told that a customer wants their cake to have boy or girl colors. I understand what they are saying despite the fact colors don’t have genders. One other big stereotype that starts young are toys. Boys are given cars,