the origin of pink for girls and blue for boys

[Maruschke]

Ages and ages ago, males were considered more spiritual than women. Think about the story of Adam and Eve... it was Eve who was deceived, not Adam. Women were considered more fleshly ( a bad thing ).

So it came about that male babies were dressed in sky blue (I guess since in ancient thought, heaven or the afterlife was just past the sky dome) and female babies were dressed in flesh coloured pink to indicate their flesh driven nature.

I really want to protest against this .

[willow5]

Very interesting.

[Jellybean29]

I always thought boys were dressed in blue so it was harder for the Gods to see them in ancient Greek legends?


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[Eenee]

They used to also dress boys in pink and girls in blue well that was my understanding anyway

[LimeSlice]

Yep, what em said.

It was the reverse until late 19th early 20th century, as the pale blue was considered a softer colour. We had a thread about this about 12 months or so ago. There was a lot of detail in it I think, very interesting.

[*Sparklez*]

Hmm I've never taken much consideration as to why the colours were delegated to each sex,
Tbh I dressed all my children in varieties of pink and blues for both sexes, but this is interesting.. Lime could you link the thread at all?


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[Maruschke]

I will try to find the article I was reading because it was fascinating.

[*Sparklez*]

Yes please do!


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[e_p]

I read somewhere recently that girls were dressed in blue until the early 1900s because the Virgin Mary wore blue? I wonder what changed?

[Phteven]

Interesting blog with some great links Pink v blue - are children born with gender preferences? | Politics | guardian.co.uk

There has been quite a bot of discussion about pink/blue in the British media since Hamley's decided to scrap the colour coding.

Yasin's favourite jumper for a long time was pink until he got older and realised that people expected him to wear blue. He also enjoyed dolls and pretending to be a Dad until MIL told him dolls were for girls. *****.

[wysiwyg]

Thanks for the link - my DD loves pink more than anything and lots of very girly things which is complete opposite of me - I often wonder where she gets it from as has displayed from very young age despite the fact had as little pink as possible (maybe it became a special thing because of this). She also favours round things and circles especially which is mentioned in article.

[Rouge]

I always thought it had to do with the french...

[Astrid]

Pink is diluted red. So boys used to wear pink due to its connection with red. Can't remember when and where that started.

Through out the ages fashion has been powerful. From styles, types of fabrics, colours, adornments etc all connected to wealth, politics, royalty, location/culture.

[Netix]

From the book of customs and superstitions; How did it begin? by R. Brasch :

Blue for Boys and Pink for Girls

An explanation of the custom of dressing boys and girls in different colours is linked with their sex. Babies all look alike, and what better means of identifying them readily than by colours- blue for boys and pink for girls? THis colour scheme has been adopted all over the world. But who would ever suspect that in the blue ribbon tied up a terror-crazed past and a haunting fear of anxious parents, deeply concerned with their baby's future?

From the days of antiquity it was beleived that evil spirits hovered menacingly over the nursery. It was thought further that the evil ones were allergice to certain colours, of which the most potent was blue. It was considered that the association of blue with the heavenly sky rendered satanic forces powerless and drove them away. Even in our own time Arabs in the Middle East continue to paint the doors of their homes blue to frighten away demons. Thus, the display of blue on a young child was not merely an adornment but a necessary precaution.

Girl babies were regarded as vastly inferior to boy babies and it was assumed that evil spirits would not be interested in them. That is why blue was reserved for boys. Any distinctive colour for girls was deemed unnecessary.

Possibly later generations, unaware of the original cause of "blue for boys" but very much conscious of the neglect of girls, introduced for them the new pink-look.

European legendary tradition suggests another beautiful explanation of the colour scheme for babies. This tells that baby boys are found under cabbages whose colour - on the Continent of Europe - was mostly blue. Baby girls on the other hand, were born inside a pink rose.

[Maruschke]

Wow, so it seems there are at least three competing explanations for the colours?!?

[Beautiful Disaster]

I will try and find it but there was something I read and in my baby shower quiz that said in the very early days pink was for boys

[Astrid]

Seems to be after WII that the pink for girls, blue for boys thing really took hold. Back in the 1800's small children and babies were dressed the same, the main difference was that boys buttoned at the front and girls at the back. Probably something to do with toilet training, as it is easier to TT in a skirt, than having to drop pants. Also could be due to the infant mortality rate, just more sensible to have one type of dress for both genders.

There are parenting articles from the early 1900's advising of pink for boys and blue for girls.

Of course this is a western culture thing, other cultures will have their own ways of dressing children in the past.

[Ca Plane Pour Moi]

Onyx, my son is starting to get "pink if a girl colour" - but thankfully still loves his purple. His pink top is rarely worn these days. And he hasn't even asked to play with dolls for ages - although he does get to dress me, so obviously I'm a real-life barbie to him.

But he plays babies with his soft toys and his cars, so I'm not too upset.