* For centuries, she says, children wore dainty white dresses up to age 6, cause it could be bleached
* a June 1918 article
said, “The generally accepted rule is pink for the boys, and blue for
the girls." ... Other sources said blue was
flattering for blonds, pink for brunettes; or blue was for blue-eyed
babies, pink for brown-eyed babies
* In 1927, Time magazine printed a chart showing sex-appropriate
colors for girls and boys according to leading U.S. stores. Many suggested boys should wear pink
* Today’s color dictate wasn’t established until the 1940s, as a result of
Americans’ preferences as interpreted by manufacturers and retailers.
“It could have gone the other way,” Paoletti says.
* With the women's liberation movement in the 60s, it was all about gender neutral clothing (though neutral being traditionally masculine--girls in slacks, not boys in dressed)... Paoletti found that in the 1970s, the Sears, Roebuck catalog pictured no pink toddler clothing for two years.
* Gender-neutral clothing remained popular until about 1985.... “All of a sudden it wasn’t
just a blue overall; it was a blue overall with a teddy bear holding a
football,” she says. Disposable diapers were manufactured in pink and
blue.
* Prenatal testing was a big reason for the change. Expectant parents
learned the sex of their unborn baby and then went shopping for “girl”
or “boy” merchandise. (“The more you individualize clothing, the more
you can sell,”)
* Some young mothers who grew up in the 1980s deprived of pinks, lace,
long hair and Barbies... rejected the unisex look for
their own daughters.
* children are just becoming conscious of their gender between ages 3 and
4, and they do not realize it’s permanent until age 6 or 7. At the
same time, however, they are the subjects of sophisticated and pervasive
advertising that tends to reinforce social conventions. “So they think,
for example, that what makes someone female is having long hair and a
dress,’’ says Paoletti. “They are so interested—and they are so adamant
in their likes and dislikes.” (Which explains why boys who feel like girls inside, and vice versa, vehemently reject gender specific clothing, even to the point of depression.)
* The loss of neutral clothing is something that people should think more
about. And there is a growing demand for neutral clothing for babies
and toddlers now, too.”
So it came down to consumerism. Are we surprised? Just look at what's happened to the wedding industry. Well, the point is, there is a wedding industry.
I remember going through phases as a child where I would only wear pink, or never wear slacks. Maybe being taller than most girls was something I was becoming conscious of, as well as the usual "Asserting My Personhood!" reasons that kids have. It changed when my mother bought me some slacks that were wide like a skirt, with a cute matching top--after that I broadened my fashion scope.
What about you guys? Or your kids? :-)
4 comments:
My kids grew up in the early eighties. I dressed them in a lot of red and white. : 0 My daughter had a purple phase and a black phase. She hated lace and florals. My son went through a loooooong phase where nothing could have writing or symbols or pictures on it...think plain white tee-shirts. He was so boring. Fortunately a recent girlfriend has cured him of his phobia. ; )
When you were born, I'd dyed some hand-me-down pink baby sleepers orange, which looked terrific and gender neutral. However, by the time you were two, to my great mortification you would only wear dresses and insisted on wearing them outside to play in the sand box. I had my rep as a feminist to uphold, but you were of tuffer stuff. You won. Sigh. ;)
To this day I am still overly conscious of and just to the "dislike" side of ambivalent about pink. I grew up in the 60s and 70s and my parents painted my room pink when I was 8. Not because I wanted pink, because I preferred blue or green, but because "all little girls love pink". It was still pink when we moved, 8 years later. It was like growing up in one of those pink rooms where they put the violent prisoners ....
@Robena - Ahh the power of love.
@mum - Well, a girl who knows her mind and won't succumb to "peer pressure" is a feminist too! But in the privacy of her wardrobe, fighting off the mom.
@Skye - lol
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