[quote=“Shuck, post:20, topic:3916”]
Previous to that, there doesn’t seem to have been any real consistency in terms of gendered color, though blue was associated with the Virgin Mary.
[/quote]That certainly fits better with my knowledge of art history than the “it used to be the opposite” story.
I moved a post to an existing topic: A visual guide to understanding the introverted, and how to live with them
I find it an interesting coincidence that budgerigars’ noses turn pink if they are female, blue if they are male.
(I was going to include an image here but it wouldn’t let me, so JGFI.)
The switch took place in the late 1920s. By the early 1930s you’d often find that different stores used alternate pink/blue boy/girl match ups for baby and toddler goodies, particularly baby blankets.
Probably the idea that it used to be the opposite stems from that quotation (or a small number of others like it) given by Shuck. The fact that as recently as 1918, though, someone could suggest that blue was for girls and pink for boys - even if it was an opinion of a small group rather than the whole of society - still reminds us that blue and pink don’t have anything to do with boys and girls. If it is an exaggeration that things were reversed then you can see why the exaggeration would come to be.
Of course I remember reading (I know, that’s a great citation) that one of the reasons blue became a boys colour was that early feminists started wearing pink in defiance of gender stereotypes and men fled the colour. I’m going to go on assuming this is true for now.
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My daughter just got a toy-house yesterday. Both she (1.5 yrs) and her brother (3 yrs) like to play with it, but he tends to fill the beds with cars. She OTOH was perplexed that the baby could not be extracted from it’s cradle (all molded in one piece).
They both like to play with dolls, but my son has a greater tendency to stick his thumbs in their eyes and say “ow ow ow!” in a tiny voice. I say greater tendency, because my daughter seems to like poking the dolls’ eyes, as well. to my sons credit, he usually gives the doll a hug immediately after.
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