Pink is often thought of as a feminine color, even though it has become fashionable for men's shirts and even ties. However, shirts and ties are about all that will be pink on most men, and the color continues to be reserved for women, for the most part. From pink baseball caps to pink laptop computers, practically all else that's pink is worn or used by a woman.
Yet there is a surprisingly masculine history to the color. In fact, before pink became universally accepted as the name for light shades of red mixed with white, the color Pinke, as it was spelled in the 17th century, was actually a yellowish, slightly green color. It was only in the latter half of the twentieth century, according to cultural historians, that pink became the near universal colors of femininity. And even as late as the 1950s in the United States, it was a pink car, the pink Cadillac, that was highly prized as a masculine status symbol. Indeed, at about the same time, "Nantucket Red" was a favorite color of preppy young men, one that could just be easily considered "Barbie bubble-gum pink."
In Catholic parts of Germany, it was little girls that were dressed in blue, which is the color of the Virgin Mary, and little boys in pink, as the lighter shade of red, which was held to be a boldly masculine color. Beginning with the early 1900s, pink became increasingly associated with females. But as late as 1927 New York's department store giant Macy's was still trying to promote pink as a boy's color, going against the tide in other parts of the country. Thus standardization came about when clothes were no longer being made at home but became manufactured. It was during the Forties that the social norms were inverted and pink became a girl's color.
Girls do seem to have a natural fascination with pink, for the most part. Feminist activists notwithstanding, it has been shown that while making toys pink can be detrimental to girls' development if the toys proscribe the scope of their learning experiences, using pink for toys such as Lego blocks can help girls improve their spatial-relations skills.
Pink has come to represent many other things in addition to femininity. During the holocaust of the Second World War, just as Jews were required to wear a Star of David, persons suspected and accused of homosexuality were required to wear a pink triangle on their garments at all times. Today, an inverted pink triangle is symbol of homosexuality and worn with pride by those in the community. Pink is also the color used to represent breast cancer awareness, due mostly to its ties to femininity, and aims to draw attention to the issue as it effects women.
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Written by Paul Wise, who looks ravishing in pink, recommends TheBlogumentary.com for more reading on the subject and about pink in gender rolls in general.
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