Historical breakdown of pink and bluefrom @gsnwilliams

Transcript

You believe me if I told you that pink used to be for boys and blue was for girls? This is Fashion is Genderless. A series about how the things that we consider masculine or feminine constantly change. Back in the eighteenth century, wealthy European men wore pink because colored fabrics were expensive to produce. With many dyes being imported from overseas. Pink was also considered a lighter shade of red, a color that was associated with military strength and power. But a century better, the conversation had shifted to children's clothing. In 1918, a children's clothing publication recommended pink for boys because it was considered the stronger color, while blue was apparently more delicate and better suited to girls. The problem was that nobody could actually agree. Nine years later, Time Magazine surveyed major American department stores and found that they still couldn't agree. However, over the following two decades, American clothing manufacturers began settling on pink for girls and blue for boys. And I find that timing very interesting. After World War two, advertising was pushing the image of the perfect housewife, encouraging women to return to a domestic life after taking on factory jobs while the men were away at war. There was also a financial incentive for these manufacturers. Encouraging boys and girls to wear different colors gave parents more reason to buy separate wardrobes, rather than just passing down clothes between siblings. But that idea of what women were supposed to do started facing serious pushback. In 1963, Betty Friedan published Tier Feminine Mystique, challenging the expectation that women's lives should revolve around marriage and housework. This book helped fuel the second wave of feminism, with women demanding greater equality. And that extended to children's clothing, helping popularize practical unisex clothing throughout the nineteen seventies. But that shift towards unisex clothing didn't really last long. As ultrasound technology improved during the nineteen eighties, more parents could find out whether or not they were having a boy or a girl before the baby was born. And manufacturers saw this as an opportunity. Instead of waiting for the baby to arrive, they could market pink and blue clothing, the nappies, and the nursing furniture to expecting parents. And what's interesting is that pink has become a far stronger symbol of femininity than blue has of masculinity, which just goes to show how successful the fashion industry has been at shaping the way we interpret something as simple as color, just so they could sell products to entire generations. Follow for more stories behind fashion and culture.