ladies home journal, 1918

[strangestranger]

"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 prettier for the girl."

Comments

[ironic_vs_hip]

haha

[strangestranger]

totally.

[freyjasrage]

Also, even to this day in the Netherlands, pink is for boys and blue for girls!

[strangestranger]

interesting!

[honeydewboba]

That is SO INTERESTING! Both the way the color connotations are explained, and the fact that it's opposite of the way baby genders are coded today, at least here.
When my first baby cousin, who is now seven, was turning one year old, I got her a cute royal blue overalls outfit with a natural colored tee shirt that went underneath - the tee shirt had cute bugs and bees on it in lots of colors. It was cute and gender-neutral! My aunt said, "This is a BOY outfit!" and was mad at me. Jeez, it wasn't like I bought the baby a shaving brush and a razor.

[strangestranger]

apparently, pink was for boys because it's the color of dilluted blood (aka the "life force") while baby blue is a dilution of blue, the color of the sky and sea (the "etheral, filmy heaven and watery deep" as my book suggests). the switch to blue=boy/pink=girl didn't happen until around the 1950s.

ugh, the whole gendering of COLORS is so irritating! i used to work with children, and it's heartbreaking to see a little boy pushed away from all things pink and glittery (which they naturally gravitate towards- all children love bright colors and sparkles!) and towards extra fun colors like brown and black.

[silica_sandra]

When I was little I had a "Barbie car," which was probably one of the most atrocious aspects of child consumerism anywhere, but it was a battery-operated car that I delighted in driving my younger siblings about in (on the sidewalk, of course). When we outgrew it, a little neighbor boy that absolutely loved anything mechanical (total "normal boy" about that) would come over and drive around in the car. My mom gave it to him after consulting his parents - the mom was all for it but his dad flipped out because the car was pink. Never mind that it went "vroom vroom" in a totally "boy-appropriate" way, if you would want to be into that, but the fact that it was pink triumphed over all.

After having the Barbie car for about two weeks, boy's dad painted it red. The kid was, at most, four.