Pink is for Girls; Blue is for Boys
How marketing can change perceptions
How many times have you heard the phrase “well, Pink is for girls!” or maybe the alternative (but rarely heard) “Blue is a boy’s color!”. What if I was to tell you that this is a strong example of how powerful marketing is, and if we look at history, it’s only 100 years old! Let me explain.
While it seems that pink has always been a girl’s color, and blue is one for the boys, it wasn’t always so. Pink was initially seen as the perfect color to dress boys in; it was a diluted version of that most masculine of colors — red. Why wouldn’t little boys wear pink then? After all, red was a masculine color — it was used in uniforms for a reason. Equally, pink was seen as strong, powerful color, far more powerful then dainty, delicate blue. Something about pink was more decided, and at least for me, pink is a color that you need the right skin color for — I don’t have that skin color. I can see where they’re coming from.
Blue, on the other hand, had links to the Virgin Mary; it was seen as soft, fragile, dainty, and also symbolic of purity. All things that girls were perceived to need to embody. It was a sign of…
