According to Google Answers, up until the 1950s pink was not specifically for girls and blue for boys. In fact, the history I found quotes The Sunday Sentinal in 1914 and the Ladies' Home Journal in 1918 as recommending pink for boys and blue for girls. A further comment on that site points out that the researcher could not in fact find any such recommendation in the named issue of the LHJ.
Blue is of course the colour most strongly associated with the virgin Mary, and in the Middle Ages, blue was associated with true love and faithfulness. Apparently blue was commonly used for boys' school uniforms as early as the 17th century - not because there was any particular association between boys and blue, but because blue dyes were cheap. Blue sashes on Empire dresses were de rigueur at the beginning of the 19th century. Theodore Roosevelt's daughter Alice, born in 1884, famously wore a light grey-blue colour that became hugely popular, and was known as "Alice Blue."
Stories abound that pink was considered a masculine colour until the beginning of the 20th century. Whether or not this is true, both blue and pink were worn by boys historically. Less famous than Gainsborough's "Blue Boy" painting is its companion "Pink Boy."
Some point out that the Nazis use of the pink triangle to identify homosexuals indicates a link between pink and femininity by the 1930s.
We can surmise, then, that the stark delineation between blue for boys and pink for girls did emerge sometime in the early 20th century, for reasons historians seem unable to produce, and today is considered to be carved in stone. Oh, sure, girls can wear blue, if the clothing is girly enough, or the girl has long enough/styled enough hair, and men who follow the right sort of high fashion magazines can wear pink silk ties and shirts, but heaven forbid that your four-year-old son have his heart set on Dora the Explorer running shoes:
Or hot pink soup bowls. We bought the latter, but just couldn't bring ourselves to go for the former. We might as well draw a target on his back, at that point.
No comments:
Post a Comment