# Pink=girl, blue=boy, worldwide? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 1, 2015, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pink-girl-blue-boy-worldwide/726758 "2015-08-01T21:28:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![PurpleClogs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f04885/32.png) [@PurpleClogs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PurpleClogs)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2015, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pink-girl-blue-boy-worldwide/726758/1 "2015-08-01T21:28:01Z")
In the US, pink for girls and blue for boys has traditionally been used in decorating, clothing, toys, and signage. Just curios if this is the case in every country or just here? ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2015, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pink-girl-blue-boy-worldwide/726758/2 "2015-08-01T22:26:27Z")
We think today it’s traditional but it’s surprisingly recent in the U.S. probably not being a strong trend until 1940 and not being universal until long after that according to this [Smithsonian magazine article](http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/when-did-girls-start-wearing-pink-1370097/?all). Earlier the colors had been opposite: > [@](#): > > For example, a June 1918 article from the trade publication Earnshaw’s Infants’ Department said, “The generally accepted rule is pink for the boys, and blue for the girls. The reason is that pink, being a more decided and stronger color, is more suitable for the boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is prettier for the girl.” It would only be universal even today only to the extent that U.S. culture has infiltrated other traditions. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2015, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pink-girl-blue-boy-worldwide/726758/3 "2015-08-01T22:58:23Z")
with ultrasounds people now start buying kids stuff in the right color before the kid is born. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2015, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pink-girl-blue-boy-worldwide/726758/4 "2015-08-02T04:19:29Z")
Once again, [the master spaketh…](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2831/was-pink-originally-the-color-for-boys-and-blue-for-girls) ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2015, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pink-girl-blue-boy-worldwide/726758/5 "2015-08-02T05:15:39Z")
I lived in Korea and China for a long time. They’re aware of the blue/pink association, but don’t observe it closely. I knew a badass college boy who scootered around town on a pink scooter. He wasn’t the only one. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2015, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pink-girl-blue-boy-worldwide/726758/6 "2015-08-02T07:31:27Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > We think today it’s traditional but it’s surprisingly recent in the U.S. probably not being a strong trend until 1940 and not being universal until long after that according to this [Smithsonian magazine article](http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/when-did-girls-start-wearing-pink-1370097/?all). Earlier the colors had been opposite: > > It would only be universal even today only to the extent that U.S. culture has infiltrated other traditions. Go back a bit further (well, OK, a lot further) and boys weren’t called boys - they were called girls - ‘girl’ just meant ‘infant’ or ‘child’ - to differentiate the sexes, male children were called ‘knave girls’ and female children were called ‘gay girls’. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2015, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pink-girl-blue-boy-worldwide/726758/7 "2015-08-02T07:48:15Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > female children were called ‘gay girls’. The jokes just write themselves sometimes. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2015, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pink-girl-blue-boy-worldwide/726758/8 "2015-08-02T08:21:37Z")
> [@PurpleClogs](#): > > In the US, pink for girls and blue for boys has traditionally been used in decorating, clothing, toys, and signage. Just curios if this is the case in every country or just here? No. As mentioned elsewhere, in Thailand pink is the color for anyone born on a Tuesday, myself included. This is why the school color for Chuklalongkorn University is pink, because King Chulalongkorn – the little boy in _The King and I_ – was born on a Tuesday. Blue is for anyone born on a Friday. List of birth colors [here](http://www.usmta.com/Thai-Birthday.htm). There are no colors here specifically for girls and boys. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2015, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pink-girl-blue-boy-worldwide/726758/9 "2015-08-02T08:23:41Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > No. As mentioned elsewhere, in Thailand pink is the color for anyone born on a Tuesday, myself included. This is why the school color for Chuklalongkorn University is pink, because King Chulalongkorn – the little boy in _The King and I_ – was born on a Tuesday. Blue is for anyone born on a Friday. List of birth colors [here](http://www.usmta.com/Thai-Birthday.htm). > > There are no colors here specifically for girls and boys. Huh. Weird. For some reason, you’d expect the colours in such a scheme to match those of the rainbow. 7 days, 7 colours, 7 symbols, that sort of thing. ---
**Author:** ![Desert\_Nomad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desert_nomad/32/177_2.png) [@Desert\_Nomad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desert_Nomad)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2015, 9:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pink-girl-blue-boy-worldwide/726758/10 "2015-08-02T09:44:37Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > No. As mentioned elsewhere, in Thailand pink is the color for anyone born on a Tuesday, myself included. This is why the school color for Chuklalongkorn University is pink, because King Chulalongkorn – the little boy in _The King and I_ – was born on a Tuesday. Blue is for anyone born on a Friday. List of birth colors [here](http://www.usmta.com/Thai-Birthday.htm). > > There are no colors here specifically for girls and boys. So why is Wednesday night different? ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2015, 10:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pink-girl-blue-boy-worldwide/726758/11 "2015-08-02T10:01:21Z")
Pakistan, yes we do. But, I suspect that it’s a copying of UK/US, it’s not a particularly important issue after all. Plus it makes clothes manufacturers happy. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2015, 10:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pink-girl-blue-boy-worldwide/726758/12 "2015-08-02T10:20:56Z")
> [@Desert\_Nomad](#): > > So why is Wednesday night different? I’ve never figured that one out. And there’s disagreement over Wednesday night’s color. The earlier link said light green, while [this one](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colors_of_the_day_in_Thailand) says gray. I’d play it safe and not be born on a Wednesday night. EDIT: Supposedly it’s unlucky here to get a haircut on a Wednesday, but I don’t think that has anything to do with it. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2015, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pink-girl-blue-boy-worldwide/726758/13 "2015-08-02T14:08:44Z")
> [@Hail\_Ants](#): > > Once again, [the master spaketh…](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2831/was-pink-originally-the-color-for-boys-and-blue-for-girls) One thing that generally comes up in these discussions wasn’t mentioned by Cecil. I doubt that it really has any bearing on the issue, but it still comes up: Some people claim the two familiar and often paired paintings “Blue Boy” by Gainsborough, and “Pinkie” by Thomas Lawrence had a lot to do with it. Those are two painting by 18th Century English portrait painters, but they weren’t widely reproduced and published together until many years later when they wound up displayed together in the same gallery. (The pairing of the two painting doesn’t make that much sense in some ways - they were painted 20 years apart and the style of dress differs by well over a century. “Pinkie” was a commissioned portrait of a wealthy man’s 11 year old daughter, and she is portrayed wearing the contemporary fashions of her day. “Blue Boy” is period piece painted by Gainsborough as a tribute to one of the 17th century painters he greatly admired, and he painted his model in 17th century costume.) ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2015, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pink-girl-blue-boy-worldwide/726758/14 "2015-08-02T15:06:44Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > Huh. Weird. For some reason, you’d expect the colours in such a scheme to match those of the rainbow. 7 days, 7 colours, 7 symbols, that sort of thing. It is the rainbow. The only color missing is indigo, and a lot of people think that Newton was fudging when he included it. Indigo is almost impossible to discern in a real rainbow and I think most cultures never included it. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2015, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pink-girl-blue-boy-worldwide/726758/15 "2015-08-02T15:32:27Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > List of birth colors [here](http://www.usmta.com/Thai-Birthday.htm). I’m lucky. My colour is purple, which I like. I “read somewhere” (that is, no cite) that red for boys/ blue for girls (mentioned as the rule before WWI in a previous post) thing dated back to the middle-ages. ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2015, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pink-girl-blue-boy-worldwide/726758/16 "2015-08-02T15:40:11Z")
> [@yabob](#): > > Some people claim the two familiar and often paired paintings “Blue Boy” by Gainsborough, and “Pinkie” by Thomas Lawrence had a lot to do with it. [The Blue Boy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blue_Boy) [Pinkie](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkie_(painting)) ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2015, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pink-girl-blue-boy-worldwide/726758/17 "2015-08-02T16:03:20Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > Huh. Weird. For some reason, you’d expect the colours in such a scheme to match those of the rainbow. 7 days, 7 colours, 7 symbols, that sort of thing. > [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > It is the rainbow. The only color missing is indigo, and a lot of people think that Newton was fudging when he included it. Indigo is almost impossible to discern in a real rainbow and I think most cultures never included it. Seven colors in the rainbow is certainly not universal. Some languages don’t even have seven color words, or only do because of late additions. E.g. see the relatively recent distinction of orange from yellow or red in English, or yellow/green/blue color words in other languages. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2015, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pink-girl-blue-boy-worldwide/726758/18 "2015-08-02T17:06:04Z")
> [@Ruken](#): > > Seven colors in the rainbow is certainly not universal. Some languages don’t even have seven color words, or only do because of late additions. E.g. see the relatively recent distinction of orange from yellow or red in English, or yellow/green/blue color words in other languages. Obviously there might not be a specific _word_ for each color, but people who could see a rainbow 2000 years ago could see seven distinct colors. They might just refer to one of them as light red, red like an orange, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2015, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pink-girl-blue-boy-worldwide/726758/19 "2015-08-02T17:44:52Z")
[Here](http://www.radiolab.org/story/211213-sky-isnt-blue/) is a story from the public radio program Radiolab. It describes a big study by William Gladstone in the nineteenth century of The Odyssey and The Iliad; there were no mentions of the color blue. The story goes on to describe how the color blue is a relatively recent addition to the language. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2015, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pink-girl-blue-boy-worldwide/726758/20 "2015-08-02T17:54:24Z")
> [@samclem](#): > > Obviously there might not be a specific _word_ for each color, but people who could see a rainbow 2000 years ago could see seven distinct colors. They might just refer to one of them as light red, red like an orange, etc. Why would they? There aren’t seven and only seven distinct colors in a rainbow. The number seven is entirely arbitrary when it comes to the spectrum. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pink-girl-blue-boy-worldwide/726758.md?page=2)