In the pink

We have tried to raise our children (boy and girl) in a gender neutral way, but we have been amazed that they have gravitated toward very stereotypical boy/girl preferences. Our daughter, for example, LOVES the color pink.

Olson Zaltman's Bianca Philippi sends along two articles about this (they sort of remind me of Carrie’s Patterson-Reed's fascinating Medium piece about the history of indigo). The first article suggests that pink was not always a “girl color.” In fact, a 1918 catalog for children’s clothes recommended blue for girls. It wasn’t until after World War II that pink because closely associated with femininity, at least in the US.

The second piece is a commentary about the cultural baggage associated with pink. Although I don’t necessarily disagree with the author, redefining pink would be challenging. From the very moment of your child’s birth, girls get pink blankets and boys get blue ones. It’s almost inescapable.