Growing Up In the Binary

Pink for boys and blue for girls? Wait What???

For as long as most of us remember, we have always associated colors to each gender, blue for boys and pink for girls. But, as this video describes this is not how it has always been. “The reason is that pink, being the more decided and strong color, is more suitable for the boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is prettier for the girl.” Before babies were decifered by colors, they were wearing white dresses because it was easier to clean and more practical. It wasn’t until the mid 19th century that it became a pattern of use for blue to be associated with boys and pink for girls. Theres really no dedicated logic as to why each color is associated with either gender. Eventually, they just ended up dressing the children like the parents that shared their same gender. So even from the beginning were told to associate gender in one way or another. We have to keep it distinct and separate. This is one way were socialized from before were even born. Were divided into a group based on a single color!

In the book this is described as nothing but a marketing strategy. Our society has become obsessed with determining their child’s gender before it has even been born. “Although the predominant culture continues to assume that women and men are different, and therefore communicate in different ways, actual research does not support this”(pg.40). We must ask ourselves instead, do all women around the world communicate the same way? Or how about all men? We have to stop putting each gender into a boxes. And if we are just so obsessed that we have to continue doing this, maybe we should make more boxes instead of just pink and blue.

After all its just colors people, what difference does it make? If our eyes are more drawn towards a certain color, why do we keep labeling colors as only one gender specific? We must also try and get away with being obsessed instilling this into the brains of our children the second they enter the world.

In this second video its basically a poem called “Pink and Blue”. It classifies girls as pink and boys as blue. I think this video shows a great deal of the stereotypes associated with each sex and how it shapes us. If children watch this video, some might be able to spot the stereotypes and that would be good. We need to teach our upcoming generation to be aware that emotions, colors, feelings, clothing, toys, etc. are things that can be associated with either sex and should not be limited. Children are sponges that absorb anything they’re given. It’s up to us to teach them what is right and what is wrong. We must help them decipher what they choose to wear and what colors they will associate themselves with instead what their sex chooses for them!

–Pink & Blue. (2017). Retrieved from https://youtu.be/65iC2I4KEXo

–Why Was Pink for Boys and Blue for Girls? (2018). Retrieved from https://youtu.be/ohwbtkMXJJ0