Pink for Girls and Blue for Boys? Maybe it’s Time for a Change.
Using the colors, pink (for girls), and blue (for boys) was a way to standardize gender identity for children. The use of blue and pink tended to vary among countries, but the association of France with fashion and their preference of pink for girls and blue for boys what was became the preferred standard.
There are various theories explaining when we decided that pink was for girls and blue was for boys. It started somewhere between 1890 and the 1980's.
Up until 1890, the colors pink and blue didn’t necessarily suggest gender identity for children. Prior to this time, much of the clothing for infants was a neutral or white color. Practicality and hygiene were the primary concerns regarding the choices of clothing for children.
Children’s clothing was originally intended to be practical, and was not viewed as a fashion statement. It is easy to see why a beige or white material would be favored by mothers; infant clothing is easily soiled, and the disinfection of clothing usually involved the use of bleach. Although it’s effective as a cleaning aid, it’s highly caustic and would fade most of the natural dyes used for coloring fabric. Therefore, the early adoption of brightly colored children’s clothes was impractical for most people, because the colors would quickly dull with repeated washings.
There are multiple reasons for its success. But it was a progressive trend that paralleled changes in various technologies for: clothes washing, fabric colors, and marketing.
Synthetic dyes contributed to significant changes in the fashion industry starting as early as 1870. They were bolder, and also allowed the fabric to maintain its color longer.
There were significant improvements in the design and technology of washing machines in the early 1900’s (However, these gained popularity in the 1920's)
The soaps that were used to wash clothes, up until about the 1920’s caused the material to become dingy, and dulled the fabric’s colors. Synthetic detergents were invented in 1946. The synthetic detergents prevented dinginess.
Improvements in printing technology allowed for the mass production of color images, and the invention of color photography to show off those pinks and blues even more.
All that being said, these colors were artificially chosen and dictated to society by society. There’s no real reason for using these specific colors.
By picking different colors for boys and girls, people are forced to buy more, especially families with children of both genders that can no longer share clothing. Further, this fashion standard has led to toys also being marketed to children. These separate colors create a separateness between boys and girls in play, and in choosing which toys to play with.
How can boys and girls learn to be equal to each other, if they’re brought up to learn to choose differently from each other?
