Sumary

This sumary tries to explain why the girls and boys were pink or blue clothes. In the middle of the 19th century both colors arrived for the babies just before World War I.

In 1984 the little Franklin Delano Roosevelt was photographed as he wore with a skirt,shoulder-length hair, and patent leather shoes. He looked like a little girl, but he didn't. This picture was a reference fashion for those years and showed how was children's clothing until 6 or 7.

Nowadays when people see little babies they don´t know the sex, but someone wear him/her headband pink or blue in their bald head according with his/her sex.
The question is when we divide the clothing in two teams. Boys in blue and girls in pink but another question is what happened with the neutral clothing. For centuries the children wore dainty white dresses up to 6 because that was practical without complications and diapers could have been blanched several times in order to have white and shiny diapers.

In 1986 several trade publications in U.S said The features about the colors for children that were accepted was pink for girl and blue for boy. They mention that pink would be appropriate for boys because is more decided, stronger and more suitable. Blue would be for girls because is more delicate and dainty. Also the pink was recommended for brunettes and pink for blonds, other tendencies recommended blue according the eye color.

In 1927, different magazines printed suggestions about how the parents should wear their kids according his or her sex for example.

The baby boomers generation rose in 1940 then, at that time the parents dressed their children like them. Boys like their father and girls like her mother.

Women’s liberation movement arrived, with thinking anti-feminist, anti-fashion message and distinct ideas about that. Then they wanted to reverse the situation. Then girls could have had the same opportunity than the boys in their careers and personal life. In that way it would have been fair for everybody.

A big important reason for the change was the prenatal testing about the sex of the unborn baby so the parents had to buy all what the baby needed. If you individualize the clothing, then the traders could sell more clothes.

The consumerism was another important reason that increased among children in the recent decades. Marketing has collaborated with this trend because they knew that children do not realize of his gender until 6 or 7 but with the parents was different so the advertisement was for their. They impulse the purchase in order to raise the consumerism.

Personal opinion

I was fascinated with this article, because I enjoy reading everything related to clothing. I've always wanted to know why the girls have to wear pink and the boys have to wear blue, but nobody answered me the question, but instead of that, people confused me and they only told me “That was always so and it should be so”.

Thanks to this article I know the answer to my question and now I can tell to other people the truth about it.

I think people should not have divided in two teams, they should have remained the freedom of choosing their own clothing, no matter what color, and they wouldn’t have to follow old conventions about it. However I think the change won’t be quickly, that will take several decades to consolidate.

When I have children I will start with the change and I hope that decision does not bring me problems with my conservative family, but I will keep my position about that.

Target: (http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/when-did-girls-start-wearing-pink-1370097/)