I was a total tomboy, but I did have a Barbie or two, although I don’t ever remember having a Barbie car or dream house. Holly Hobbie and Strawberry Shortcake pretty much rocked my world. Oh and Cabbage Patch Dolls. But other than that, I remember always playing outside. In the dirt. Building forts and making mud pies. I think it’s safe to say, I was not a dainty little miss.
Then and now, it was pretty widely accepted that pink is a girly/dainty color and blue is masculine, but until I stumbled across this article from NPR, I never really questioned why or how it came to be that way.
Did you know it hasn’t always been that way? In the 1700’s both men and women wore pink. It wasn’t until after World War II that “pink” became a feminized color. Advertising obviously played a HUGE roll in pushing us to assign gender colors. After the war, everything from shampoo bottles to fashion got bathed in pink and marketed to women. The article totally made me realize how much advertising affects what we think is socially normal.
Did you grow up thinking pink was for girls? Maybe now you associate pink with having to be “girly” and you were more of the tomboy explorer type–so you’ve banned the color altogether?
~Mavis
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KAte says
Mavis, the NPR link doesn’t work.
ACK!
Mavis Butterfield says
Fixed! 😉 Thanks for letting me know.
Ellen in Clackamas says
Mavis,
when my son was born he had 2 older sisters and 2 older girl cousins so the “hand-me’down” box was mostly pink things. Of course he didn’t wear the dresses but there were lots of pink pajamas. His Dad was horrified that I would put those on him. I thought nothing of it..they were hardly worn and were free! Nobody even saw him in them. Funny how those perceptions can be so invasive.
Ramona says
Never have been a fan of pink unless it is a flower. Good thing I had a boy, but didn’t do the baby blue color.
Stacey says
My daughter was a competitive gymnast, and her gym’s main color was pink. For gym meets, the parents would wear pink so the girls could see where we were in the stands. We started having someone embroider our team on our pink shirts, including the dads. I still have a picture of our “pink dads” from a particularly spirit-filled year. I also know a very masculine cowboy who likes to wear pink. Real men can wear any color.
Veronica says
My 4 year old son’s favorite colors are pink and purple “because they are pretty”. I see nothing wrong with that.