Why are little girls so obsessed with pink? Their aisle in the toy and clothing departments are a haze of pink - is this supply meeting demand? Barbie Lane has completely pink merchandise shelving.

My niece will not wear it if it is not pink. At a birthday party I went to today of a pair of 5 year old twins, all the wrapping paper for Holly was pink, yet her brother had all colours (BUT pink, of course).

I can understand boy's aversion to pink, the one thing that makes girls girls is pink, and they differentiate themselves by being NONpink. Is it because pink IS the one colour they can claim for themselves that they obsess over it?

it's not

that last pic does nothing to support your argument PEJ

Not TRUE and Pink looks so GREAT on guys. I love a guy wearing aPink shirt with a Navy Blue Suit are you kidding me?

i got pink socks from my uncle the other day

"John, where have all your socks gone? I could've sworn that I bought you a pack just last week."


R-E-S-P-E-C-T find out what it means to me,
R-E-S-P-E-C-T take care of TCB, (sock it to me, sock it to me, sock it to me, etc).


If you don't shut the fuck up, I'm going to sock you.
[Edited 12/1/05 21:31pm]

Reply to 'Serious question: Why is pink only for girls?'

Because they have, ummm. ummm? because. They umm. I don't know?

Zelaira said:

I am not talking about adults, I am talking about little girls - why the obsession?
I know pink is fine for grown men, I love men who wear pink, they are strong in their masculinity - because by wearing it, they are saying "I don't care what you think".

My 4-year-old daughter has a thing for pink too. I love pink, and one of my favorite shirts is pink. I've had to go around and around with her about neither sex "owning" a color. And it's not just kids: Whenever I wear my pink shirt -- or even a shirt with significant pink in it -- I get all kinds of half-compliment/half-probing comments from my coworkers. It's ridiculous.

Anyway, I don't know definitively, but I've heard theories that the pink/blue gender thing is a layover from several pagan traditions wherein creation sprang from a union of the sky, which was male, and the earth, which was female. The sky, of course, is blue; the earth, rich with iron, exudes browns, reds, pinks, etc. The earthen color is further associated with femininity because of menstruation.

People adorned their kids accordingly.
[Edited 12/1/05 21:32pm]

or pink thongs, i mean flip flops men and women have those, you better get them in every colour no matter what your status

Here's me in a pink shirt. The girl on the left hand side of the pic is my butch cousin Ethel.

ReturnOfDOOK said:

Who's the other guy? He's nerdsexy.

ReturnOfDOOK said:

nice necklace!

PEJ said:

I know - I'm gay.

Lammastide said:

So why is not red the girl colour? Or is it that pink, the pastel version of red, was invented for female babies?
Thank you! A serious answer finally! We are born out of the pink bits

Not sure if this is true or not, but this is one explanation I've heard. It does seem to make sense.


Ages ago in Europe, when a lot of people were uneducated and superstitious and there were a lot of childhood deaths, it was thought that babies and children died because they were stolen by magical little people. (usually faeries) Faeries were believed to have an aversion to forget-me-nots and blue was thought to be a holy colour (the virgin Mary nearly always being portrayed wearing blue, for example) Boys were considered more important than girls, and therefore more worthy of protection, so blue forget-me-nots would be placed around their cribs and beds. Years later someone thought girls should have a bit of protection too -but not as much as the more important boys -so they were given pink forget-me-nots. The idea for blue for boys and pink for girls stuck.


As for why kids seem stuck on the idea: it's because adults reinforce it. Monkey see, monkey do.

charlottegelin said:

Why pink and not red? Hell if I know. But I'd guess you're right... the pastel versions of both red and blue are more suited to babies. Most people don't dress their boys in Navy either.

PEJ said:

omg, that 2nd guy's zits match with his shirt.

meow85 said:

Interesting theory.

BSK3478 said:

Lammastide said:

I did! navy for baby girls AND boys seems acceptable here. If you don't know the sex of a new baby, it would be a safe colour to buy clothing as a gift. Red is OK for little boys to wear though, just not pink

Lammastide said:

I do agree with the adults reinforcing My parents never dressed my sister or me in pink, but my sister went hell for leather crazy about pink and FORCED my mum to buy her pink EVERYTHING! Peer pressure? She wanted to be like pink dressed girls she admired? Maybe.

charlottegelin said:

Babies in dark colors!?!? You evil woman!! I thought yellow was the safe neutral.

Anyway, I think it's more freeform nowadays. I see little girls in blue all the time, and boys in red. But, you're correct, pink on boys is a major no no.

I think it's the old girls-are-more-liberated thing. As adults, women can wear pants, ties, even clothing actually from the men's department. But if you see a guy shopping for himself in the Misses' department, well, you've got a special guy on your hands!

Lammastide said:

exactly!!! I must be very evil

I see plenty of guys that wear pink. Whats this all about??

meow85 said:

This really didn't help the girls
as
soon it was discovered that faeries were actually attracted to the color pink.

Illustrator said:

notoriousj said:

how many 5 year old guys have you seen wearing pink? and why not?