nowadays you can't walk into a kid's
store without seeing a clear divide boys
stuff is blue and girls stuff is pink
this is so ingrained in our culture that
we hardly even notice it but that wasn't
always true in fact it used to be the
opposite so when and why did pink and
blue become girl and boy colors let's
find out on today's episode for
centuries all kids wore dresses and grew
their hair long until the age of six or
seven this wasn't just because little
kids look adorable in dresses it was for
practical reasons toilet training was
much easier in a dress in diapers
since the fasteners that held the pants
in those days weren't easy for kids to
use on top of that it took kids much
longer to grow out of a dress than a
pair of pants which meant parents didn't
need to spend as much money on clothes
for their kids around the mid-1800s
children's clothes started hitting the
shelves in pastel colors like pink and
blue but they weren't intended to be
gender specific by 1918 that had changed
the general rule at the time was pink
for boys and blue for girls the reason
according to an article from that year
was quote pink being more decided in a
stronger color is more suitable for the
boy while blue which is more delicate
and dainty is prettier for the girl
that's right less than a hundred years
ago our idea of pink and blue was the
complete opposite so when did the color
switch happen it started in the late
1940s when the concept of the ideal
American family took shape men were
expected to join the workforce while
women were expected to stay at home with
the children retailers and marketers
started packaging more feminine products
in pink and mother started buying them
up from that point forward pink was more
and more associated with femininity but
it wasn't until the 1980s that the line
between boy and girl colors became clear
for the first time parents could find
out the gender of their baby before it
was born expecting parents wanted to
shop for their new baby and businesses
realized that pink and blue could make
them some serious green around the same
time laws were passed which let
companies advertise their products to
kids without nearly as many rule
it used to be so kids today are exposed
to lots of advertising all around them
that tends to reinforce what it means to
be a boy or a girl
including what colors you should wear in
other words there's no such thing as boy
or girl colors so just wear whatever you
like and now you know why pink is
considered a girl color comment below if
you have a burning question you'd like
to know the answer to
we may just answer it oh and don't
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[Music]