Why girls are dressed in pink and boys in blue: a history of gender stereotypes

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Many speculate that the original division into pink for girls and blue for boys was invented by cunning marketers. Say, this trick will help to get people to buy more clothes and accessories for children. Others are convinced that people of a certain gender gravitate towards certain shades. Why exactly these colors and what gender stereotypes have too far-fetched explanation?

If whose marketers have succeeded in this direction, then definitely American, they came up with spending on the gender of the child long before his birth. The holiday, where the guests are told the sex of the child, determined by ultrasound, and the parents themselves are not yet aware of who the daughter or son is expecting, is usually decorated in a pink and blue style, and the secret is revealed by color. For example, parents-to-be cut a cake and, by its bright pink filling, will know that they will have a girl. Or a balloon filled with confetti of different shades bursts. Such an event is lavishly decorated with balls, various treats, guests dress according to a certain principle, all this assumes pink and blue spending in decent sizes.

The modern world diligently erases the boundaries and gets rid of stereotypes, especially gender ones. For example, a well-known company has released a series of engineering dolls, of course, emphasizing that professions have no gender. Only even this progressive in every sense doll collects either a pink washing machine, or a pink wardrobe, or a jewelry stand (guess what color?). Somehow it was not particularly possible to get rid of stereotypes, rather “the same eggs, only in profile”, and even painted pink.

If this feature is biologically determined, then, it is likely that it is not necessary to get rid of it? After all, psychologists have been convincing for decades that girls love pink and princesses, and boys love blue and cars. But what if everything happens the other way around and the girl prefers adventure books over fiddling with pink beads? Is this not correct or is the society too stereotyped?

Are there color preferences for the floors?

There are several reasons that are cited as scientific reasons (they are actually put forward by scientists) in favor of women preferring pink and red shades. At least they should prefer.

• Long-time gatherers prefer shades of pink and red because most ripe fruits are that color. This is at the reflex level. Like, a primitive woman is walking through the forest, she saw a red berry and a light bulb “what is needed” turned on in my head! concern and anxiety of the mother.

By the way, only two hundred women took part in the study, which was so widely replicated, so there is no reason to talk about any objectivity and reliability of such conclusions. Another study confirming that infants of both sexes react more actively to shades of the red spectrum was not picked up by the media, because the "pink-blue" hysteria had already spread around the world and everyone liked it very much.

It has been proven that children begin to classify themselves as a certain gender not earlier than at the age of three, by this age, surrounded by their “own” color, they already know how to distinguish the toys of their gender from the opposite. Pink, red, lilac - for girls, gray, blue, blue - for boys. Moreover, up to the age of two, these differences are not recognized by children in any way. All this is nothing more than a form of behavior imposed by parents. Children accept this as well as many other norms accepted by the society of which they are a part.

How gender color limits choices

By and large, in the modern world, color identification is a permissive marker, but what is allowed for one sex is prohibited for the other, which means that it limits freedom, and from a very early age. Funnily enough, color is often used to promote an idea to a gender-specific audience. For example, the dolls mentioned above, the manufacturers of which "allowed" the girls to be interested in design and technical specialties, painting them in the "desired" colors.

Studies show that children from one to two years old are actually interested in certain toys, girls prefer dolls, and boys prefer cars, but the color factor does not play any role in this.

Why pink and blue

The division of the world into pink and blue began a little over a hundred years ago, despite the fact that there is no official research on this topic, newspaper publications testify to this. Before that, there was a clear distinction between the female and male worlds, but this had nothing to do with children.

Even before World War II, in most countries, namely in the West, which is now so successful in separating by color, children were generally dressed in white. Moreover, often these were some kind of shirt-dresses, both for boys and girls. This color preference is explained by the fact that white is the only color by which you can determine the degree of purity and at the same time bleach it without fear of losing color during washing.

Researchers in the field cite several reasons for the emergence of floor colors. The post-war years are determined by changes in fashion trends, manufacturers of children's clothing begin to produce it according to the principle of similarity with an adult. That is, girls are offered dresses "almost like mothers" with feminine silhouettes and, of course, shades. For boys, they offer clothes according to the principle of men - trousers from a coarser fabric, shirts. This allows you to increase sales, because sisters can no longer wear them after older brothers, and brothers after sisters, but there is still no separation by color.

In the 40s and 50s, a real breakthrough of pink is outlined. Fashion houses that have already offered a new look are beginning to cultivate femininity, tenderness and sophistication. Dior, who became the founder of this trend, unmistakably determined that the world needs to recover after the war, and this can be done only through the cultivation of motherhood and tenderness, it is these qualities that are prominent in the fashion of these years. An hourglass silhouette, a lush, accentuated chest, voluminous skirts and a thin waist - a woman becomes alluring and “tasty”.

In addition, the ladies themselves are tired of wearing clothes according to the male pattern, because this is how they dressed in the war years, pushing their own femininity further away. Now in women they wanted to see only a blossoming flower. Therefore, pink and red shades, symbolizing flowers, came to the fore. At that time, it was believed that a woman should look like a bouquet or even a flower bed - bright, inviting and sweet smelling.

The first lady of the American President Duat Eisenhower, Mamie, contributed to the cult of pink, which is now called "barbie". She appears in an amazing pink dress, and not just anywhere, but at the inauguration of her husband in 1953. The dress is immediately noticed by all women of fashion and they begin to replicate it, women sew coquettish pink outfits not only for themselves, but also for their daughters.

At the same time, a musical comes out on the screen, in which a lot of attention is paid to pink in the context of "girly color". It is in pink that many women's products are now beginning to be produced, but this did not last long. Already in the 70s, in the fight for gender equality, pink is forgotten, because the UN adopts the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. The "weaker" sex again changes into trousers and suits and is by no means pink. However, at that time, pink had already managed to gain a foothold as a color for baby girls. Later, doll makers will only reinforce this stereotype by creating a whole toy world for girls in this color.

This is, if we talk about boys, in the case of blue, which was once considered exclusively feminine, since it personified purity and tenderness, for example, in the clothes of the Virgin Mary. But, with a greater degree of probability, this shade became boyish, since they moved from the opposite, opposing it to pink. If pink is a delicate shade of red, then the opposite blue in a pastel shade is blue.

By the way, in many cultures, red and its derivatives were originally exclusively masculine, as they symbolized courage and passion. Often in military uniform you can see not just elements, but also large details of these colors. Blue could have come into common use with a naval military uniform, which was very popular for several centuries in a row.

Shades for boys and girls in the USSR and Russia

If in the West whole gender parties are organized in pink and blue tones, then in the USSR the maximum that a baby got was a ribbon of a certain color. And even then, they were often not pink and blue, but red and blue. By the way, unlike the Western prototype, there is a completely logical explanation for this.

In Tsarist Russia, the Order of St. Catherine was immediately prepared for girls who were born in a princely or other noble family. It was a star on a red ribbon, the boys were awarded the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called, he was on a blue one. Parents began to attach these peculiar awards to the cradle, often only a ribbon, thereby laying the foundation for the current traditions.

However, after the revolution, this was canceled and babies began to be dressed in a lot, there were no color divisions, and the previous canons were declared obscurantism. Little has changed after the Great Patriotic War, here, as they say, there was no time for fat, children were dressed in a lot and no matter what color or even size it was.

But European trends also penetrated into Russia, because the fashion for pink Barbie colors could not but affect the clothes for girls in the USSR. Despite the fact that in Russia, as well as throughout the world, in the 70s pink remained a sign of gender inequality, female oppression and philistinism, in the 21st century it was again pulled out of the other world by marketers, again painting women's products in the appropriate shades … Say, if you want women to buy something, make it pink. Well, or crimson, red or burgundy. They love it a lot.

It would seem that adults should be far from such stereotypes, but how many men bring pink to their wardrobe? Until now, many are convinced that this is infantile and not worthy of a man's shoulder. Although psychologists assure that men who wear pink are confident enough in themselves, apparently enough to appear in public, initially opposing themselves to public opinion. And how important is the color gender definition when a beard is attached to a pink shirt, two meters in height and an oblique fathom in the shoulders?

Women also excel at following stereotypes. Even nail polish choosing from the original red (this red is not that red) and not blue, green or any other.

Based on the foregoing, we can conclude that it does not matter in what color the child will be dressed, the choice of pink and blue is rather a way to protect parents from additional questions and questions. After all, as they are called "mimiocodiles", the very ones who will not pass by without inserting their own "5 kopecks" will teach not only how and what to dress the child, but also what to show him. For example, Soviet cartoons are traditionally considered the best and are often chosen as a complete alternative to modern ones. However, is this approach correct?