PINK: A unisex color

Colors have a mind of their own. They influence the way
people think or pre-determine what you do. Example is how
people will go out of their way in oder to avoid crossing
the path of a black cat. Another example, take the color
of our blue bus and its influence over the great minds at Swarthmore & Haverford. Someone has to tell them that it is a bus... not a truck.

I remember studying an experiment in psychology about nonsexist child rearing. It was quite interesting how they conducted this experiment. They had a child whose gender wasn’t revealed for a while. The child was raised with equal proportions of “girl” toys and “boy” toys. The child was to decide for themself which toys to play with. Also the child wasn’t dressed in a clothing style of either gender. The experiment was very interesting. I wish I could find more information about it but there doesn’t seem to be much out there. I did find an interesting piece about non-sexist child rearing. It's a bit long but still good.

I think that it is definitely rediculous that there are stereotypically certain colors for boys and certain colors for girls. What I am so curious to find out is how this whole thing began. Who is the one who decided that some colors are for boys and some colors are for girls; and what carried on his or her idea? I say, speaking for everyone: straight, gay, meterosexual, boys, girls, men and women that anyone can wear whatever color appeals to them. If you like a color, what should stop you from wearing them? A sterotype? Think about that the next time you're shopping, or even looking through your own closet.

I think that it is definitely rediculous that there are stereotypically certain colors for boys and certain colors for girls. What I am so curious to find out is how this whole thing began. Who is the one who decided that some colors are for boys and some colors are for girls; and what carried on his or her idea? I say, speaking for everyone: straight, gay, meterosexual, boys, girls, men and women that anyone can wear whatever color appeals to them. If you like a color, what should stop you from wearing them? A sterotype? Think about that the next time you're shopping, or even looking through your own closet.

I agree that it's just a color. I'm a 44 year old black man that wears pink, such as a pink hat, pink pants and shorts, pink sneakers, pink watches . I wear pink to show that it's ok for men to wear pink. I get strange looks from people when I wear pink and that should not be.

I agree that it's just a color. I'm a 44 year old black man that wears pink, such as a pink hat, pink pants and shorts, pink sneakers, pink watches . I wear pink to show that it's ok for men to wear pink. I get strange looks from people when I wear pink and that should not be.

Yeah, wasn't it that pink was for boys originally, but things got switched around sometime...

Here's what I found!

The practice of pink for girls and blue for boys was introduced into the United States from France in the mid-19th century; in Little Women, Amy tied a pink ribbon on Daisy, and a blue one on her twin, Demi, "French-style, so you can always tell." But the practice was not common until after World War II, partly because there was considerable disagreement about which color was appropriate for which sex. The Infant's Department, a trade journal, tried to settle the question in 1918: "There has been a great diversity of opinion on the subject, but the generally accepted rule is pink for the boy and blue for the girl. The reason is that pink, being a more decided and stronger color, is more suitable for a boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is prettier for the girl."

Clothing manufacturers complained that greeting-card companies were confusing the issue by using pink for girls and blue for boys in birth announcements. The greeting-card people pointed to Gainsborough's "Blue Boy" and "Pinky" as proof they were right. The debate continued for decades. in 1939, Parents magazine polled customers in a New York department store and found that, while most preferred pink for girls, about one-fifth favored blue for girls and pink for boys. The first children to be consistently color-coded by gender were the post-war baby boomers. Pink has been an exclusively feminine color for only about 40 years. (This explains all the sweet, elderly ladies who thought your son was a girl even when he was dressed all in blue.)