Enter card store; approach section that hosts anticipated arrivals, new
births, and congratulatory wishes for the new family addition. Immediately the eye is bombarded with shades
of pinks and blues. A few yellows and
greens are thrown in to cover the unknowns.
No need to look further, it is made very easy for us to go to the
correct section to pick out the correct card.
Or is it dictated as to which ones we should choose from? There are no duplicate designs with just the
color change each style card gives off a totally different message for each
gender choice. The neutral card choices offer
very ordinary and limited messages, nothing specific just plain and simple. I guess those infants are just left in the
middle somewhere until they have a gender type, after all they need one of
those don’t they?
Scanning
through the pink section all are directed to parents that are either expecting
or have just been blessed with a “cute” little girl. According to Jennifer Bourn, a marketing
branding specialist, the color pink is “a delicate color that means sweet,
nice, playful, cute, romantic, charming, feminine, and tenderness.” (Bourn, BournCreative, 2010) Is this the
beginning of her destiny and who she is to become? What must she live up to? How difficult will it be for her when she
wants to start to wear blue or better yet black? The front of the cards are laced with
pictures of hearts, flowers, baby animals, carriages that hold a baby dressed
in… you guessed it, pink or the depiction of an angelic baby with a halo above
her head. Then we have the different
adjectives that shine across the card in glitter and bows. Descriptive words adorn the front of the card
such as cute, marvel, love, beauty, treasure, darling and angel. Must she live up to these words? Is her fate sealed in the eyes of the parents
because the card says so? Will she start
to disappoint her parents if she steps out of the descriptive titles that have
been hailed upon her?
Jump to the
baby boy cards. We see the color blue,
different shades, and different depths.
Blue has been depicted to symbolize “strength, depth, trust, loyalty,
sincerity, wisdom, confidence, stability, faith, heaven, and intelligence,”
according to Bourn. (Bourn, BournCreative, 2011) The adjectives noted
on these cards are Macho Baby, BOY = Brilliant, Obedient and Youthful, pride,
wonder, adventures and exploring. What a different fate for this young child
than that of the baby girl. Wouldn’t
everyone want to be getting a card from the blue section, it states so much
more.
When did the
color coding of infants come into play?
According to Natalie Wolchover from Live Science, “It wasn't until after
the Second World War that the modern convention (pink for girls, blue for boys)
started to dominate, and even so, it didn't "gel" until the 1980s… Philip
Cohen, a sociologist also at the University of Maryland, thinks they are,
essentially, the outcome of a marketing ploy.” (Wolchover, 2012) What a surprise this is. Of course, what a brilliant idea, this way we
can sell paint for bedrooms, crib and baby room decorations, and toys specific
to gender by color depiction. We can
sell not just one brown teddy bear but now two, one pink and one blue.
Before WWII infants were dressed
quite similar we didn’t need the help of color coding to assist us in the
knowledge that a baby human existed or to tell us what sex it was. Were we smarter then? After all they do have names and specific body parts which signify if
they are male or female. Children grow, change and we can see with our own eyes who they ultimately become; we
don’t necessarily need a color or label to guide us. After all aren't we all human first, our specific body parts signify us as to what sex we are but nothing should outline what gender we identify with. There is no rule book on what a "male" is, does or should be, and in the same respect, nothing should outline what a "female" is, does or should be. I'm a female who loves to get dressed up pretty and display my femininity. I enjoy cooking, the ballet, theater, being a mother and having a clean house as well. At the same time, I will dig in the dirt, go to a farm to pick up Alpaca poo for my garden, fix a leaky faucet, lift things, work hard, use tools, I'm intelligent, goal oriented, love a challenge and more. I would say I'm human! All of the other parts of me are just that, parts of who I am not because I'm a woman and not a man; it has nothing to do with that but everything to do with what I enjoy... Life and just being me, I don't need any color coding for that.
Works Cited
Bourn, J. (2010, November 10). BournCreative.
Retrieved February 15, 2015, from The Bourn Creative Website:
http://www.bourncreative.com/meaning-of-the-color-pink/
Bourn, J. (2011, January 15). BournCreative.
Retrieved February 15, 2015, from The Bourn Creative Website:
http://www.bourncreative.com/meaning-of-the-color-blue/
Wolchover, N. (2012, August 1). Live Science.
Retrieved February 16, 2015, from The Live Science Website:
http://www.livescience.com/22037-pink-girls-blue-boys.html
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