Sexism with Pink (Part 1)

This is well covered territory in the media, particularly over the last few years. It is such a wide topic, I could write multiple posts on this. Pink is still widely regarded as a 'girls' colour. The gender exclusivity of a colour is so dated and tired. Slowly pink is starting to flash up on colour palettes for Men wear, but boy's and baby's wear not so much. There is this old phrase 'it takes a brave man to wear a pink shirt'. Not so much any more, and no it is not true, but a horrible expression with the implication that a man is compromising his masculinity by wearing a 'girls colour'. I believe this is when 'pink is for girls' and 'blue is for boys' is at it's most dangerous, this is when the mentality clicks in and seems to stay for life. Without pointing the obvious out, I believe parents buy pink or blue for their babies because the gender is not always obvious of the child in question and the parent intends to dress the baby to give him/her an identity. It amuses me that yellow seems to be considered as a 'gender neural colour', surely now in 2016 all colours should be 'gender neutral'. Blue, on the other hand has lost it's exclusivity as 'a male colour', well again not with baby wear but still not as much as pink. Is this because fashion and lifestyle became more varied for women in the 20th century and they took on more practical jobs that were previously only occupied by men, so naturally popular clothing such as jeans became standard garment of choice for both sexes. We need to break this mindset down about pink and blue. Is there any scientific or historical reason why is pink is stereotyped as 'for girls'? Well not really, there has been speculation that males and females could have a sensitivity to different areas of the colour spectrum, but nothing has been scientifically proven. Is marketing to blame for this? Yes...

(image from Stye Estate and Cakes Decor via Pinterest)

Cosmetics often use pink in their adverts and packaging to reaffirm that it is a feminine product for women. Then there are far less interesting products not so subtly aimed at women using flowers and shades of pink such as laundry softener.

Recently I bought a birthday card from Marks and Spencers, it had a dachshund on the front and said 'Happy Birthday', with a blue envelope. On the back of the card it said for 'for him'. Why 'for him', Marks and Spencers? Aren't women allowed a card that doesn't have pink on it? Why do they need to tell their consumer which gender a card is for, why not let the buyer of the card decide on it's recipient?

...to be continued....

#colour #sexism #pink #blue #stereotypes