Pink is often called as feminine colour and sometimes as “girl’s colour”. Why we connect a clothing or accessories or anything which is superficial to sexuality and gender? If we think about childhood, there were teasing and bullying when a boy wore pink shirt or t-shirt or had pink pencil or pen, maybe we were also part of that teasing group.
If you give it a closer look, it starts with the birth of baby or way before the birth when mother is pregnant and sex of baby is known. From baby shower to first year birthday, everything will be covered with pink if it is a girl. Even parents knowing that colour has nothing to do with baby’s gender, they prefer pink for the daughter and red or blue etc. for their son.
When Did Girls Start Wearing Pink?
So if we go back in time and see where this gender stereotype actually started, we would be surprised. In 1920s boys were made to wear pink colour as it was considered as a strong, bright colour and blue was for girls since it was delicate and dainty. In 1940s the retailers started to manufacture feminine products in the colour pink, companies also manufactured pink clothes for girls, eventually it gave room for gender stereotype.
It is so much absorbed by the society that even if we ask a kid to wear pink he immediately says “No, I hate pink, I’m not a girl to wear it”. It should be normalised by the society because it is just a colour like any other. And also there is no rule that all girls should like pink as there is no rule telling that boys should not like pink. It seems like such a small topic but it is very sensitive and we can see how some gender stereotypes are deep rooted in our mind and society. We can try to normalise by educating kids and eventually can rid of the gender stereotype associated with pink.
