Maria Caliban wrote...
wikipediaIn Western culture, the practice of assigning pink to an individual gender began in the 1420s or earlier. From then until the 1940s, pink was considered appropriate for boys because being related to red it was the more masculine and decided color, while blue was considered appropriate for girls because it was the more delicate and dainty color, or related to the Virgin Mary. Since the 1940s, the societal norm was inverted; pink became considered appropriate for girls and blue appropriate for boys, a practice that has continued into the 21st century.
Interesting, thanks!
I tried checking out the sources but that was more or less a dead end, even the Guardian had nothing in it's bad science source list pertaining to the quoted article. Too bad I was hoping for explenation of why the change happened as opposed to some vague assertation that such was the case once upon a time, with only some vague home journal reference from 1918.
I found this interesting link however: http://histclo.com/g...ink/gp-obs.html
Britsh Researcher wrote...
"Like many other websites, you cite an interesting reference about pink being regarded at some time in the USA as more appropriate for boys, and blue for girls. This you (and many others) attribute to the Ladies Home Journal and specifically to the June 1918 edition. As a semiotician interested in the gendering of colours I went to the trouble of buying a copy of the June 1918 edition of the LHJ only to discover that no such reference was in that issue. I then made a special trip from Wales to England, to the British Library's newspaper library at Colindale in order to check all of the issues from 1913 to 1918 and I still found no such reference. I did note the similarity of style, however. Do you know exactly where this reference actually comes from or at least where you got it from? You are not alone in citing the reference. The Smithsonian Institution also does so (without naming the source) and the BBC website also did so. Google shows up many similar references. But they are all mistaken in identifying the source as the June 1918 edition of the LHJ. I did find pictures in the LHJ of that period in which boys were shown wearing pink. I would very much like to find the exact quotation, however. I did wonder if it might have been from one of the pamphlets produced by the LHR such as on something like 'Choosing Your Baby's Clothes'. Finding such pamphlets would be very difficult, however."
Seems like a good dash of internet hofflenosh mixed in with some semi-facts.
Retour en haut
