Gender and Color: Pink
HBC has noted pink used for children's clothes as early as the 18th century. We do not, however, yet fully understand the gender onnotations. We have noted pink use in paintings and variety of observations. At one point pink was considered more of a boy's color, as a watered-down red, which is a fierce color) and blue was morefor girls. The associate of pink with bold, dramatic red clearly affected its use for boys. An American newspaper in 1914 advised mothers, "If you like the color note on the little one's garments, use pink for the boy and blue for the girl, if you are a follower of convention." [The Sunday Sentinal, March 29, 1914.] A woman's magazine in 1918 informed mothers, "There has been a great diversity of opinion on the subject, but the generally accepted rule is pink for the boy and blue for the girl. The reason is that pink being a more decided and stronger color is more suitable for the boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is pertier for the girl." [Ladies Home Journal, June, 1918] This undoubteldy strikes modern readers as very surprising indeed. Some sources suggest it was not until the 1940s that the modern gender associations with
color became universally accepted.
Assessments
HBC has noted pink used for children's clothes as early as the 18th century and we have begun to collect detailed lists of instances where pink has appeared in paintings and clothing advertisements. We do not, however, yet fully understand the gender connotations. We have noted a variety of assessments by various authors. These provide some interesting ideas about color conventions over time. Many writes do not carefully document their assessments so at this time we have to treat these assessments as speculative, but they at least provide some basic senarios that can used to begin our asessment. In some of the cases we note several authors repeating some of the same ideas. We are unsure to what extent this is authors repeating accepted preceivd wisdom or if some of these ideas are really grounded in fact.
Country Trends
The gender conventions that developed in most countries was blue for boys and pink for girls. While this convention is shared with most countries, the time line in which it developed may vary from country to country. There also appear to be some national diiferences. A Belgian reader writes, "I have encountered your quote regarding the doubt about which color children wear in Belgium. I am from Belgium and can confirm very affirmatively that boys do wear pink and girls wear blue! I know it sounds weard, but it's true!!!" [Deloyer]
Dated Examples
One way to follow gender conventions is to document dated examples ofboys wearing pink clothing. Here we have a variety of sources. A variety of early sources are of course paintings. These paintings, epecially the contemporary portraits are probably firly accurate depictions of the use of color in various time periods. By the late 19th century we have advertisements from newspapers, magazines, andcatalogs. We have noted pink use in paintings. As these advertisements actually offered garments for sale, we believe they are accurate indications of color usage. Of course we do not know how well such garments sold, but we do not believe that comapies would continue offering pink garments if they did not sell. One source we have not usedhere is hand painted postcards, as the colors painted on often imaginary. e have just begun to collect these examples, but now have several from a number of different countries over time.
Literary References
HBC has also noted some literary references involving pink.
Kate Greenaway (England, 18??): Kate Greeenaway described a vision she has to her friend John Ruskin: "Go and stand in a shady-lane-at least, a wide country road, with high hedges, and wide grassy places at the sides. The hedges are all hawthorns blossoming, in the grass grow great patches of speedwell, stitchwort, and daisies. You look through the gates into fields full of buttercups, and the whole of it is filled with sunlight... Now do you see my little picture, and me as a dark girl in a pink frock and hat, looking about at things a good deal, and thoughts filled up with such wonderful things--everything seeming wonderful and life to go on forever just as it was." Unfortunately I do not have the date of this comment.
Louisa May Alcott (United States, 1869): Louisa May Alcott published Little Women, in 1869, right after the Civil War (1861-65) in the United States. One passage in the book describes that when the family first sees her newborn twins, a boy and a girl, Meg says, "I put a blue ribbon on the boy and a pink on the girl, French fashion, so you can always tell them apart." This reference sugges6ts that the pink-blue gender convention was not widespead in America during the 1860s. HBC thinks that gender color conventions probably did originate in Europe. Until very recently most fashion conventions did. We are not positive yet, however, that the convention was of French origins as Alcott indicates. This novel was extremely widely read, so after 1869 many American families would have been exposed to the idea of a pink-blue gender convention, both directly by reading the book or inicretly in conversaions with women and girls who read it. Just when the convention became widely accepted is another question.
Observations
At one point pink was considered more of a boy's color, as a watered-down red, which is a fierce color) and blue was more for girls. The associate of pink with bold, dramatic red appears to havey affected its use for boys. We have noted the following fashion preferences to pink in clothing catalogs and fashion magazines as well as various other references.
1902: America
This sailor suit was made in chambray, a fine cloth, usually of cotton but also of silk or linnen. In this case it was surely cotton. Surprising this suit was made in pink, showing that modern color conventions had not yet been established.
1908: America
A McCalls sewing patterm in 1908-09 had a tunic suit looking much like a Buster Browm suit, but with sailor styling. One of the several color option was pink.
1914: America
An American newspaper in 1914 advised mothers, "If you like the color note on the little one's garments, use pink for the boy and blue for the girl, if you are a follower of convention." [The Sunday Sentinal, March 29, 1914.]
1918: America
A woman's magazine in 1918 informed mothers, "There has been a great diversity of opinion on the subject, but the generally accepted rule is pink for the boy and blue for the girl. The reason is that pink being a more decided and stronger color is more suitable for the boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is pertier for the girl." [Ladies Home Journal, June, 1918] This undoubteldy strikes modern readers as very surprising indeed.
1930s-40s: German
A HBC reader reports, "When I was a child in Germany during the 1930s and 40s, to wear pink was resisted by boys because it was condsidered to be underwear colour for girls and women. The stima st the time, however, was not as serious as it would be nowadays.
1940s: America
Some sources suggest it was not until the 1940s that the modern gender associations with color became universally accepted. HBC does not yet have, however, specific citations.
1940s-50s: France
A French reader tells us, "It's true, color convention were not absolutly compulsory as late as the 1950s. In some French catalogs , sometimes the boys clothes were proposed in pink, specialy if the article was combined with a other color. I recall that my Parents made smoks and rompers in pink Vichy (Gingham) and white shirt with combined embroideries in pink and blue. But it must be said that French mothers were much more fond of blue for their boys."
1945: America
In the short section entitled "Clothes at the Christening", we find: "At the christening everything the baby wears is white. But at other times the various colored accessories for a girl are supposed to be pink, and for a boy, blue." [Emily Post, Etiquette--The Blue Book of Social Usage (Funk and Wagnalls, New York, 1945). The originaql edition of this book was published in 1922 and there were revisions in 1927, 1931, 1934, 1937, and 1942. I am not sure if the reference to pink appeared in the 1927 edition, or just when it appeared.
1950s: America
The pink convention for girls was well established in America during the 1950s. We note, however that the "preppy" style appeared in th 1950s. One aspect was patel colored bitton-down shirts. We are not sure pink was one of the pastels, but we note that pink and other pastel shirts did appear in the 1990s.
1990s: India
A HBC reader reports,"In Kerala and other areas of southern India boys often wear pink bush-shirts decorated with sweet flowers etc. Instead of short pants they wear a short white skirt (lungi or dhoti). In school, however, they wear uniforms with shorts pants--except perhaps in very rural areas." HBC alnoted this in Kerala in the 1980s. We are unsure as to when this fashion first appeared.
SourcesDeloyer, Christine. E-mail message, April 10, 2003.
http://histclo.hispeed.com/gender/col/col-pink.html
