Why is pink a feminine colour?
Much of my work throughout year 1, had
a predominant focus on colour. I have always been fascinated by where colour
comes from? Colour trends? Cultural differences? The psychological impact of
colour? Why are certain colours assigned to a particular sex? I started off my
research by looking into Colour trends, with a main focus on Pink/Blue and
their associations.
‘Girly’ ‘Feminine’ ‘Camp’. These are
all words we associate the colour pink with. But Why? In actual fact, back in
the nineteenth century, colour was genderless with infants and children wearing
white clothing allowing the parents to have more of an inexpensive and
conventional lifestyle, “before 1900 most babies in the United States wore
white clothing to signify their age but not their sex, consistent with cultural
norms.” Not only was there an introduction to bleaching, but white clothes were
able to withstand frequent laundering with boiling water. So when and why did
everything change?
Believe it or not, Blue was initially
introduced as a feminine colour, not only was it perceived as more of a “dainty
pretty colour” but there were strong associations with the Virgin Mary. What is
also really interesting is some artists mixed ‘Lapis Lazuli’ into their paint
to depict the most sacred female icon. Another factor was the popularity of
blue and white sailor suits for young boys. “A July 1856 news item in Godey's Magazine noted that the layette featured lots of white
dresses with blue trim. This was because their first-born baby "voue au blanc" (dedicated to the Virgin) and
would wear white and blue for its first seven years. This was said to
"symbolizes special protection."
According to ‘The
Dress maker magazine’ it wasn’t until WWII when the colours were reversed and
pink was more associated with girls and blue with boys. This was mainly due to
the Nazi Germany concentration camp, where they labelled people with different
coloured emblems (triangles) as a form of identification. Pink triangles were
sewn onto the uniforms of the homosexuals and yellow on the Jews. Another
reason could be the Women’s liberation movement (1960s) which associated the
colour pink with traditional female roles.
Some people thought
aesthetically, pink was more appropriate for boys or girls with brown
hair/brown eyes and blue best suited for infants with blue eyes, blonde hair.
The blue clothing complimented and corresponded well with the blonde hair and
blue eyes. Pink, being more of a darker, warmer colour worked better with brown
(also a warm colour).
“Blue was flattering
for blonds, pink for brunettes; or blue was for blue-eyed babies, pink for
brown-eyed babies” - Jo Paoletti. This idea links well with another
theorist I came across when researching colour and human response:
E.R.Jaensch theory suggests that people who
have blonde hair and blue eyes are more attracted to colder, lighter hues
(blues and green) also known as ‘green-sighted’ because of their location in
the world (tropical climates/cold climates). While darker complexions, brown
eyes have more of a warm, vivid hue preference (red-sightedness), ‘Where
sunlight is more abundant, people are likely to show a preference for warm,
vivid hues.’
Pink is a colour
which has only recently been added to the English dictionary. Derived from
‘pinking shears’ to trim cloth, which gave rise to the flower Dianthus
plumarius also known as common pink, garden pink and wild pink. The
associations are evocative of spring, health and youth - “young men and women
might wear pink clothing; old men and women did not.” Interestingly, the colour
red is seen as such a dominant, symbolic colour of strength and power, yet pink
is the same colour only slightly lighter - the subtle changes in colour can
have such a huge impact on the emotions being portrayed and associations we have
with them.
Pink and Blue gender
associations are still around in this day and age but not as prominent. Elsa
from the film Frozen is a perfect example of how blue isn’t necessarily
seen as a ‘masculine’ colour anymore - Her blonde hair and blue eyes correspond
with her blue dress, therefore based on more of an aesthetic point of view
rather than because of her gender perhaps?
There are arguments
regarding whether colour preferences are due to nurture, or nature - Can your
gender really determine your colour preference from birth? Are males and
females sensitive to different regions of the colour spectrum? Speculations and
scientific experiments continue but no one can be 100% sure. Do boys inherently
prefer blue? Do girls inherently prefer pink? These are questions I would
continue to research further.
All this research
relates to my current practice because it has given me more of an insight into
colours and the type of emotions they reflect (especially in branding). This is
useful for future designing If I were deciding on a colour for a product, I’m
now in a better position to consider colours with a broader range of knowledge
on how it could be perceived - particularly in regards to target audience.
In terms of the
practical work, I potentially could have played around with colour
experimentation? Perhaps look at objects which are mainly associated with a
particular gender (because of the colour) but what would happen if I
altered or reversed the colours? Play around with asking what people’s emotions
are in response to colour exposure and do my own little experiments. I could
create a body of work which reverses the whole gender-specific colour
association in the 20th Century. I think it would be interesting to just
explore colour further, in a practical sense and see where it would take me!
Bibliography
PAOLETTI, J. B.
Pink and Blue: Telling the Boys From
the Girls in America
In-text: (Paoletti, 2012)
Paoletti, J. (2012). Pink and
Blue: Telling the Boys From the Girls in America. 1st ed. Indiana
University Press.
CUMMING, R. AND PORTER, T.
The colour eye
In-text: (Cumming and Porter, 1990)
Your Bibliography: Cumming, R. and Porter, T. (1990). The colour eye.
London: BBC Books.
BIRREN, F.
Colour and Human Response
In-text: (Birren, 1984)
Your Bibliography: Birren, F. (1984). Colour and Human Response.
Van Nost. Reinhold.
Pink and blue: The color of gender, Article · September 2008, Paolo Frassanito & Benedetta Pettorin
Although my study abroad may have been a particularly turbulent experience, I learnt a lot about both myself as a practitioner, and as a person. The experience gave me the opportunity to collaborate with not only people from different cultures and with different ways of working, but to study something slightly outside of my comfort zone, and gain some valuable, transferrable skills to incorporate into my course at my home university.
