# Why is Pink a Feminine Color? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 20, 2004, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-pink-a-feminine-color/230110 "2004-02-20T00:35:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![gregongie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/919ad9/32.png) [@gregongie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gregongie)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2004, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-pink-a-feminine-color/230110/1 "2004-02-20T00:35:20Z")
In the West, anyway. I assume this is due to societal conditioning, so maybe a better question would be: when did pink become a feminine color? Also, is this a result of some biological trait females have? Or did some Queen during the Middle Ages arbitrarily declare pink to be her color, and since then we’ve all followed suit? ---
**Author:** ![RumMunkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@RumMunkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RumMunkey)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2004, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-pink-a-feminine-color/230110/2 "2004-02-20T01:50:50Z")
Uhhhhhhh… you’re kidding, right? Ok, maybe my look on it is in the miority, so I’ll say it and wait for you to all make fun of me. Genitals. What color is a girl’s va-hoo-hoo? While a boy’s ding-dong is a little closer to purple, I can see how they get blue. ---
**Author:** ![Arturius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Arturius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arturius)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2004, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-pink-a-feminine-color/230110/3 "2004-02-20T02:03:34Z")
> [@DakotaDog](#): > > Uhhhhhhh… you’re kidding, right? Ok, maybe my look on it is in the miority, so I’ll say it and wait for you to all make fun of me. > > Genitals. What color is a girl’s va-hoo-hoo? > While a boy’s ding-dong is a little closer to purple, I can see how they get blue. Ive heard sillier answers, but not by much. I think its somehow linked to religious beliefs for some reason, but im not sure. Good question anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2004, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-pink-a-feminine-color/230110/4 "2004-02-20T02:06:47Z")
Please recall that in the 1950s, that stuffy, stultifying era of conformity, when men were not given to adopting any feminine traits, nevertheless it was considered normal for the man in the gray flannel suit to wear pink shirts to the office. Things usually aren’t as simplistic as they’re imagined to be. P.S. **Code Pink for Peace!** > **[CODEPINK - Women for Peace](https://www.codepink.org/)** > > CODEPINK is a women-led grassroots organization working to end U.S. wars and militarism, support peace and human rights initiatives, and redirect our tax dollars into healthcare, education, green jobs and other life-affirming programs. ---
**Author:** ![gregongie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/919ad9/32.png) [@gregongie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gregongie)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2004, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-pink-a-feminine-color/230110/5 "2004-02-20T02:23:49Z")
_Maybe_ pink is meant to accentuate a female’s genitals, but that sounds like a rather Freudian answer to me (e.g. Women wear fur coats in order to mimic pubic hair). It could also be that caucasian babies tend to be very pink, which may explain why pink isn’t considered feminine in the parts of the world where not everyone is white. For instance, I’m fairly certain pink is a gender-neutral color in India. Elsewhere, I really don’t know. I know very little about psychology, but it seems likely that wearing a certain color helps children indentify with their gender group. I’m just curious why it happens to be pink. ---
**Author:** ![MLS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MLS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MLS)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2004, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-pink-a-feminine-color/230110/6 "2004-02-20T02:36:43Z")
> [@Jomo Mojo](#): > > Please recall that in the 1950s, that stuffy, stultifying era of conformity, when men were not given to adopting any feminine traits, nevertheless it was considered normal for the man in the gray flannel suit to wear pink shirts to the office. Things usually aren’t as simplistic as they’re imagined to be. > > P.S. > **Code Pink for Peace!** > [http://www.codepink4peace.org/](http://www.codepink4peace.org/) I was but a mere child in the '50s, but it’s my impression that in those days men never wore pink. Ever. I believe you may be thinking of a decade later. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2004, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-pink-a-feminine-color/230110/7 "2004-02-20T02:42:59Z")
You’re thinking in too modern a way. We did this more than once before but I offered that, in the US in the teens, pink was a color for boys, blue for girls. When it flipped, I didn’t try to find. [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=32984](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=32984) ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2004, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-pink-a-feminine-color/230110/8 "2004-02-20T02:53:03Z")
Your memory is imperfect, **MLS** (in other words you’re a normal human being; you in your turn no doubt can remember things that I have forgotten). It most definitely was the 1950s when men wore pink. Cite: [http://www.fiftiesweb.com/fashion/fashion-m.htm](http://www.fiftiesweb.com/fashion/fashion-m.htm) I can remember the 1960s personally, though I was just a kid then (too young to smoke ganja, which is probably why I can remember the 60s, ha ha). The 60s was when guys wore multicolored paisely psychedelic shirts, and solid pink by then was _vieux jeu_. P.S. I bought a retro men’s pink dress shirt at Target just the other week. ---
**Author:** ![Loopydude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e56c9b/32.png) [@Loopydude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopydude)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2004, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-pink-a-feminine-color/230110/9 "2004-02-20T03:03:30Z")
I have a friend who just got a new Sphinx kitten. It’s very tiny, and her fresh young kitten skin is a delightfully rosy color. So I remarked: “Wow, your pussy sure is pink!” ---
**Author:** ![Call\_me\_Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Call\_me\_Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Call_me_Frank)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2004, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-pink-a-feminine-color/230110/10 "2004-02-20T03:21:20Z")
That is lewd, **Loopydude**. And I salute you. As for my 1.5 cents…I think that ‘masculine’ colors are usually darker… There are grey areas (pun intended), of course, such as purple. But purple is really more of neutral color, imo. ---
**Author:** ![capacitor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e47774/32.png) [@capacitor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capacitor)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2004, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-pink-a-feminine-color/230110/11 "2004-02-20T04:08:17Z")
I read somewhere that pink was picked because there was an outcry that baby boys had a color (blue) for them, but baby girls did not for a long while. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2004, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-pink-a-feminine-color/230110/12 "2004-02-20T04:13:50Z")
And now I’m going to contradict myself. My new newspaper database offers confusing info. I found cites in US papers that definitely say “pink for girls, blue for boys” from 1888 and 1914. So, the convention, if there ever was one, is confusing. There seem to be cites on both sides of the color isle. ---
**Author:** ![mrunlucky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7993a0/32.png) [@mrunlucky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrunlucky)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2004, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-pink-a-feminine-color/230110/13 "2004-02-20T05:04:41Z")
An essay on the color pink by David Byrne in the recent issue of “Cabinet” magazine (11, Summer 2003) touches upon this. > [@](#): > > As I soon found out, however, pink was actually considered a color best suited to boys until as late as the 1950s. Blue was the girlie color. Pink, inasmuch as it is a watered-down red – the fiercest of colors (does anyone doubt me here?) – was naturally associated with boys, with their instinctive attraction to fire trucks and sports cars. The _Ladies’ Home Journal_ in 1918 said, “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 the boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is pertier [sic] for the girl.” Byrne then goes on to propose these three ideas: that in the late 40s, when women were forced to became more active due to the damaging effects of WW2 on men, they took on the color pink because it was more “energizing”; that in the 60s, pink was an appropriate color to represent feminism; and that since pink triangles were used by the Nazis to identify homosexuals, men chose to distance themselves from the color. ---
**Author:** ![Thaumaturge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/858c86/32.png) [@Thaumaturge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thaumaturge)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2004, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-pink-a-feminine-color/230110/14 "2004-02-20T05:52:16Z")
One story I heard when I was very young ( sorry no cite but my fuzzy memory), was that blue was thought to drive off evil spirits. Boys were more valuable than girls in a patriarcal society like ancient greece, and so boys were surrounded by blue things. Girls were given pink things because it’s sorta opposite. Sounds like a whole lot of hooey to me, but I thought I’d share. I’ve always liked blue and green myself, and disliked red, but whether I’d have the same preferences even if pink/red was the color for males I cannot say. However, blue is the favorite color of both my mother and my father, and if there is is even the tiniest bit of heredity involved, I think my color preferences would be the same. ---
**Author:** ![gregongie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/919ad9/32.png) [@gregongie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gregongie)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2004, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-pink-a-feminine-color/230110/15 "2004-02-20T22:22:17Z")
Maybe I should mention… I was chastised as a preschooler for naming pink as my favorite color. And my mom used to buy me Lisa Frank pens and stationaries, because I liked the colors. So you see, I posed this question as a sort of catharsis. ANYWAY Was is really that widely known that the Nazis used pink triangles to identify homosexuals? Also, as an aside, the russian word for “gay” is “goluboy”–light blue. [[Cite](http://community.middlebury.edu/~moss/goluboy.html)] ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2004, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-pink-a-feminine-color/230110/16 "2004-02-21T02:00:59Z")
When I was a kid I remember seeing more than one house with paired reproductions of Gainsborough’s _Blue Boy_ and _Pinkie_ (a girl in pink painted by some lesser-known artist). I don’t know whether the color scheme in these two originally unrelated paintings reflected actual gender associations in 18th-century England, or if the colors were just a coincidence, and 20th-century Americans decided to pair them up after noticing that they coincided with conventional 20th-century gender colors. ---
**Author:** ![pinkfreud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pinkfreud/32/17603_2.png) [@pinkfreud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkfreud)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2004, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-pink-a-feminine-color/230110/17 "2004-02-21T02:48:19Z")
Google Answers has a well-researched response to this question: [http://www.answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=238733](http://www.answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=238733) ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2004, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-pink-a-feminine-color/230110/18 "2004-02-21T03:10:07Z")
> [@pinkfreud](#): > > Google Answers has a well-researched response to this question: > > [http://www.answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=238733](http://www.answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=238733) You’re damned right, those answers were well-researched(at the time). THEY STOLE THEM FROM MY RESPONSE IN A PREVIOUS SDMB THREAD. > [@](#): > > At one point pink was considered more of a boy’s color, as a watered-down red, which is a fierce color) and blue was more for girls. The associate of pink with bold, dramatic red clearly affected its use for boys. An American newspaper in 1914 advised mothers, “If you like the color note on the little one’s garments, use pink for the boy and blue for the girl, if you are a follower of convention.” [The Sunday Sentinal, March 29, 1914.] A woman’s magazine in 1918 informed mothers, “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 the boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is pertier for the girl.” [Ladies Home Journal, June, 1918] From [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=32984](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=32984) But, as I posted above, further research into newspaper articles from the late 1800’s-the early 1900’s convinces me that it was not very clear cut. I can find you plenty of cites both ways. Boys blue or pink, and girls blue/pink. ---
**Author:** ![CrazyCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CrazyCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrazyCatLady)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2004, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-pink-a-feminine-color/230110/19 "2004-02-21T03:16:26Z")
I can’t recall off-hand where, but I’ve read in a couple of sources that it’s all linked to ancient color symbolism. Blue stood for health, vitality, and protection from evil spirits, so male infants were given blue things. Nobody wanted to waste blue stuff on little girls (ahh, patriarchy), so girls got pink, which symbolized cleanliness.