Pink is for Boys, Blue is for Girls... wait.

It's a well-known fact that if you are invited to a baby shower that you either find out the gender of the baby and buy the associated color, or merely buy a gender-neutral color to begin with. When this social norm was brought up in class a few days ago, it really made me wonder where the standard originated.

After a little bit of research, it is pretty clear that the whole "blue is for boys, pink is for girls" thing is actually pretty recent. In fact, it was not actually commonly practiced until about 1950, and that's just in America. Most other countries still don't adhere to this "standard". To top it all off, the baby color scheme used to be reversed.

Some argue that pink was originally considered to be a more masculine color. Blue, on the other hand, was associated with the Virgin Mary in Christian Europe, and therefore was considered to be feminine. In a Time Magazine article from only 1927, there is the passage "In Belgium, Princess Astrid, consort of the Crown Prince, gave birth a fortnight ago to a 7-lb. daughter. Said dispatches: "The cradle . . . had been optimistically outfitted in pink, the color for boys, that for a girl being blue."

The first real appearance of the color norm was in the 1868 novel Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. In the book, Amy ties a pink bow and a blue bow on Meg’s twins Daisy and Demi, so people will know the difference between the girl and the boy. It is then said that this is the “French style,” suggesting that France may have already had the gender specific pink and blue.

The most prominent explanation for the stereotype's appearance in America is the use of blue military uniforms both during and after World War I. That, along with the "Think Pink" 1950's marketing slogan for women, encouraging them to embrace their femininity, generally is assumed to have primarily attributed to the rise of the color scheme.

It was surprising to realize just how recently this became commonplace. I never actually thought about where the whole idea came from, and judging by the availability of information on it, not many other people have either. Don't let the picture above fool you though. The blue and pink association in other countries do not have the same gender assignment. Many colors are viewed differently. For example, in Asia, both brides and babies are more likely to be dressed in red, the color of celebration. In contrast, white is actually considered a color of mourning. The "blue is for boys, pink is for girls" tradition is truly a recent and creative Western innovation.