Why was pink for boys and blue for girls?
And did you know that young boys used to wear dresses?
Pink for boys and blue for girls used to be the fashion rule.
But when did that switch?
And when did young boys stop wearing dresses?
If you want some to hear something a little confusing to modern sensibilities, an 1893
article in the new york times gave the rule of thumb to quote “always give pink to a
boy and blue to a girl.”
Which to put it mildly, would make all those gender reveal parties a little confusing.
But although today we take it for granted that blue is the color for boys and pink is the color
equivalent of all things feminine, when did we first start making that assumption?
And why pink and blue?
Why not green for girls and lilac for boys?
What is it about these two hues that cornered the market on infant fashion?
Well it seems like the answer to this puzzle lies somewhere in 19th century style guides, our old
friend advertising and the advent of modern ultrasounds.
But before we get into all of these important questions we should first ask ourselves:
What were babies wearing before pink and blue?
Well the perhaps unexpected answer to this question is that before babies were being
outfitted in gender specific pastels they didn’t wear colors at all.
In fact most babies in the US and Europe were sporting unisex white gowns and dresses or
gowns that were simply the color of the fabric that they were made from.
Pastels didn’t even play a part.
And with these gowns it was a convenience more than gender that was dictating the getups
since dresses without fitted bottoms made it easier for parents to change a child’s
soiled diapers and underclothing.
Also white wasn’t just a matter of style, but a question of practicality.
White clothing could be cleaned more easily either by using stronger soaps and bleach
or outside, without having to worry about maintaining and preserving their distinct
colors.
So not only did babies rock a surprisingly colorless wardrobe, they also were pretty
much uniformly rocking dresses, a look that we now associate very strongly with femininity,
girls, and women.
But after checking out this picture of a young Franklin Roosevelt rocking a dress circa 1884,
you have to admit that if even future presidents were wearing white dresses then it wasn’t
just an anomaly.
In fact, it was the fashion that young boys should wear dresses until they were about
6 or 7, when they would also receive their first hair cuts.
So through much of the 19th century, babies looked pretty indistinct, at least along gender
lines.
And this wasn’t thought of as an issue at all.
All children wore the same clothes and that was thought of as the norm.
But that brings us to our next question:
When did colors come into play?
Well the idea that colors could be added to baby clothing in the US wasn’t introduced
in popular culture until the mid 19th century, according to Professor Jo B Paoletti at the
University of Maryland.
But even then, colors weren’t always so closely aligned to gender.
That didn’t come into play until after World War 1.
And when they did start getting lined up to certain baby genders it wasn’t always blue
equals boy and pink is for girls.
In fact sometimes it was the opposite.
Paoletti argues that in order for clothing to assume a certain “gender identity”
or association, the pattern of use has to line up with concepts and cultural norms that
we assume are unambiguously connected to a specific gender.
And some of these assumptions are based on the “pattern of use” of a particular garment.
Take for example the plain white t-shirt.
In the 1940s plain white t-shirts were considered a masculine garment because it was primarily
circulating on men and being worn by men.
(Think back on some of the plain white tees sported by Marlon Brando and James Dean).
But as time progressed fashions changed, and now both men and women wear plain white tees
regularly.
So someone today wouldn’t necessarily assume that this garment signifies a specific gender.
This was the same for infant dresses and colors throughout the 19th century.
Because the plain dresses were thought of as children’s clothing more broadly, there
wasn’t a concern that they should wear distinct outfits based on whether they were boys or
girls.
And even as colors were introduced into the baby fashion lexicon, there wasn’t a clear
cut formula down gender lines.
For example a June 1918 article in Earnshaw’s Infants’ Department publication, stated:
“The generally accepted rule is pink for the boys and blue for the girls.
The reason is that pink, being the more decided and strong color, is more suitable for the
boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is prettier for the girl.”
Sounds strange now doesn’t it?
Additionally according to the Smithsonian magazine, some sources note that blue should
be for blond and blue eyed children, while pink was ideal for brown eyed babies and brunettes.
In 1927, Time magazine had a style chart that suggested gender appropriate colors for children,
and department stores across the country suggested boys wear pink including Filene’s, Best
& Co, Halle’s and Marshall Field.
So choosing colors based on gender was a fairly recent phenomenon.
But if baby colors weren't always pink and blue, that leads us to the next question:
When did pink become a color for girls and when did blue get assigned to boys?
Well it seems that assigning pink and blue had a lot to do with manufacturers around
the time current baby boomers were children.
Because even though we’ve listed that some style guides suggested pink for boys, others
argued for boys wearing blue and girls in pink.
In the 1940s, manufacturers began making clothing that color coordinated for young boys and
girls, dividing the population between blue and pink color assignments based on what they
believed the public would like and what they would buy.
And eventually the gendered color codes we know today won out.
But as Paoletti argues, “It could have gone the other way.”
There’s really no dedicated logic behind the assignment of these colors to feminine
and masculine qualities in the US.
In fact, if you look around the world colors can come to signify multiple meanings and
rituals across cultures:
For example red in South Africa can stand for mourning, whereas in China red can be
a harbinger of good luck.
In Germany and France yellow can be a signifier of jealousy.
In Japan yellow can be used for “bravery, wealth, and refinement.”
And blue can be seen as a sign of different religious practices, and carries special significance
in Judaism, Catholicism in Latin America, and in Hinduism.
So colors are up for grabs as cultural markers and the designation of pink and blue to certain
genders was as much about the marketing choices at the beginning of the 20th century as it
was about preferences believed to be tied to masculine and feminine traits.
In fact, even though pink and blue color codes, boys wearing pants to emulate their fathers
and infant girls wearing dresses to mirror mom, saw a rise in popularity at the beginning
of the 20th century, it somewhat waned in the 1960s.
With the rise of the women’s liberation movement, there was some easing in the manufacturers’
push of color coded and gender specific clothing, with unisex clothes seeing some popularity
again.
So even though there still remained pink clothes for girls, there was a wider range of outfits
designed to give young girls more freedom of movement and activity than the more standard
dresses.
But by the 1980s we see the cementing of color coded clothing for infants with specific gendering.
And that may be related to the improvements in ultrasound technology.
Around 1985 when ultrasounds were getting clearer and clearer, parents were able to
ask their healthcare provider the big question at the heart of every gender reveal video:
“Are we having a boy or a girl?”
And that’s when products for infants geared towards a specific baby outcome increased
in demand and popularity.
Now affluent parents (and parents in general) could design their nurseries and baby wardrobes
around gender, and were urged to buy new sets of items for different genders instead of
reusing unisex clothing and gear.
This spread to all parts of the baby domain, from clothing, to diapers, toys, and furniture.
Also the idea that a person should be able to distinguish a baby’s gender as soon as
you see them stood at the heart of many pushes to dress children in noticeably different
clothing that would distinguish them one from another, whereas prior to the 20th century
this wasn’t considered a pressing concern of most parents looking for baby attire.
So how does it all add up?
Well it seems like through most of the 19th century US babies all wore dresses and those
dresses were almost always white.
And parents, while still concerned with the identity of their babies, weren’t as anxious
to distinguish them from each other in infancy through their attire.
In fact children’s clothes were designed with ease in mind, more so than displaying
masculine or feminine traits.
But as we got into the 20th century style guides and companies started pushing particular
colors for particular genders.
In part because they were able to capitalize on parents’ need to buy new clothing according
to the gender of their child instead of reusing or handing down unisex clothes.
And although gendered colors were waning by the 60's & 70's, improvements in ultrasounds
allowed parents to make predictions (and nursery design plans) around the gender of upcoming
babies.
So even though pink and blue could easily be reversed, it might not have changed how
we conceive of gender in the popular domain, but rather how we draw associations and assumptions
about gender based on certain color schemes.
So what do you think?
Any more resources to add about the history of boys wearing blue and girls in pink?
Drop them below, be sure to follow us on facebook, youtube and instagram, and we’ll see you
next week.
We received a lot of awesome feedback from last week’s episode on the origins of the
inkblot test and wanted to give a few shout outs!
So thank you to David Thomas, Renee Scanlan, and Rhonda Boyle from facebook!
And also hello to Joseph Corridon, Ness T, and weehawk from Youtube!!
That’s it for inkblots and we’ll see you next week!