- That was a peek into William T. Lynn's
art installation, Pink.
- It's such a dainty, sweet color.
Let's find out what it's hiding.
- [Woman] The first thing pink's trying to keep on the DL
is that it doesn't actually exist.
It's not part of the visible light spectrum,
you know, our old friend, ROYGBV.
- [Man] So how come we can see it, right?
Well, let's look at the eye ball,
specifically the retina.
Here we find rods and cones.
Rods are light sensitive, while cones are color sensitive.
- [Woman] Ah, but here's the rub.
There are only three types of cones.
Red, green, and blue sensitive ones.
So, let's say that you're looking at a pink Cadillac.
There are no pink-sensitive cones in the eye
to perceive the color.
So what do you do?
Well the blue and green cones in your eyes
combine to create cyan and then work in tandem
with red cones to create magenta.
- [Man] For a true pink, the blue and green cones
must partially activate
and the red cones must fully activate.
This configuration is messaged up to the brain as,
hey, translate this color mixing as pink please.
- [Woman] But pink's not the only color
that makes you get your paint set out.
Yellow activates your red and green cones,
which fire together to upload the color yellow
to your brain.
- [Man] The second thing pink doesn't want you to know
is that it's historically hung with the guys.
Up until the nineteenth century,
you'd be just as likely to see a man
wearing a shade of pink as a woman.
- [Woman] A 1918 trade magazine called
Earnshaw's Infants Department
extolled blue for girls, citing it as a more feminine hue
and pink for boys, which was associated with red
and therefore more robust of a color.
- [Man] So what happened?
World War II, Rosie the Riveter,
and the reversed roles of men and women.
After the second world war,
there was an intense movement for heteronormatizing
the gender roles.
You see this in the fashion of the day,
which became more feminine for women.
- [Woman] Suddenly, where there was a product offered
for women, there was pink.
The message was a woman's domain is in the home.
It was less Rosie the Riveter,
and more tend to your roses please.
- [Man] The third thing pink isn't too keen
on you finding out is that
it's been hanging out in jail, a lot.
There's even a shade called drunk tank pink.
The jail cells were painted
after psychologists discovered that the color
could calm aggressive inmates.
It was also used on school bus seats
to decrease acts of vandalism.
- [Woman] The fourth thing pink never puts on its resume
is that staring at it for too long
can actually make you angry.
The author of the book, Drunk Tank Pink, Adam Alter,
says sure, there was really good evidence
that over a nine month period,
the very aggressive prisoners
of a naval prison in Seattle,
were much better behaved when they emerged 15 minutes
after being put into the pink drunk tank.
- [Man] But in a follow-up study,
it was found that when inmates had been in the room
for over 30 minutes, pink took on a reverse affect.
Instead of calming the inmates, it upset them.
- [Woman] The fifth thing pink is keeping to itself
is, well, it's causing gender anxiety.
Call it gender performance by purchase,
but gender-based marketing is back and in a big way,
and it's not just little girls toys.
Pink accessories and gadgets are ubiquitous,
even extending to hot pink firearms for women.
- [Man] But here's the rub.
Pink isn't even a preferred color for women.
In 2011, Dulux paints conducted a survey
involving respondents from 30 different countries
and found that across cultures,
blue was the preferred color,
42% among men and 30% among women.
- [Woman] The second favorite colors were red and green,
followed by orange, brown, and purple.
Yellow was dead last, and pink?
Well, pink never even made it on the scoreboard.
- [Man] Hey, if you enjoyed this video,
be sure to check out these three videos as well.
- [Woman] And don't forget to visit us at
stufftoblowyourmind.com
- In our modern day culture at least,
this whole pink for girls, blue for boys thing
was really just a product of the rise of mass media,
and also clothing retailers.
- Red, the color of passion, bull fighting, stop lights,
blood, and well, Santa Clause.
- So what's harder to know for a fact,
is whether or Nazi's and Hitler were responsible
for feminizing the color pink.