The Color of Gender

How political correctness resulted in enforcing a universal, cross-cultural gender stereotype.

When cultural anthropology, psychology and photographic ingenuity converge, it’s a fascinating thing. And that’s exactly what South Korean visual artist JeongMee Yoon has been doing since 2005 in her thesis work, The Pink and Blue Projects.

Inspired by her own daughter’s obsession with the color pink, Yoon’s project explores the color preferences of children and their parents across different cultures and ethnic groups, probing into gender identity as a socialized construct.

Yoon found that girls’ preference for pink and boys’ for blue was universal and widespread, powered by pervasive advertising and media messaging intentionally targeting each gender of children with the respective color.

Yoon’s historical research, however, unearthed some curious findings indicating this wasn’t always the case:

Pink was once a color associated with masculinity, considered to be a watered down red and held the power associated with that color. In 1914, The Sunday Sentinel, an American newspaper, advised mothers to ‘use pink for the boy and blue for the girl, if you are a follower of convention.’ The change to pink for girls and blue for boys happened in America and elsewhere only after World War II.

The switch happened as twentieth-century political correctness took root and, in an effort to promote gender equality, the colors began being used with the opposite genders. This trend was so purposeful and explicit that it ended up overcompensating for the superficial connections attached to the symbolism of each color, not eradicating them but merely reversing their direction on the gender spectrum.

To illustrate these excessive and culturally manipulated expressions of femininity and masculinity, Yoon photographs children in their rooms, surrounded by their belongings in pink of blue on a background of the respective color.

The photographic style reminds us of Andrzej Kramarz’s Things series, inspired by the horror vacui style of Eastern European folk art, with a hint of fellow South Korean photographer Yeondoo Jung’s Wonderland series, also dealing with the whimsical and colorful world of children.

Explore The Pink and Blue Projects for a fascinating look inside the cross-cultural gender identity incubator of socially enforced symbolism.

Psst, we’ve launched a fancy weekly newsletter. It comes out on Sundays, offers the week’s articles, and features five more tasty bites of web-wide interestingness. Here’s an example. Like? Sign up.

Exactitudes: Cultural Photo-Anthropological Data Viz Why you aren’t nearly as unique as you think, or what 12 Japanese school children have to do with 12 homeless people in Rotterdam. Since 1994, photographer Ari Versluis and profiler Ellie Uyttenbroek have been trekking the globe together, recording Exactitudes — “exact attitudes” captured in people’s peculiar dress code...
Photography Spotlight: Blue Planet Run World-changing photography, or why the oil crisis is the least of our liquid worries. The best of photography goes beyond visual fascination and stunning imagery, and serves as a moving call to action. That’s exactly what photographers Rick Smolan and Jennifer Erwitt do in Blue Planet Run, their latest project...
Photographic Time Machine How to tear the space-time continuum with your bare hands and a camera lens – 3 photography projects that warp time through image....
Love Me: The Cross-Cultural Manufacturing of Beauty Photographer Zed Nelson explores the many faces of our cultural obsession with beauty in a compelling and provocative photo series. ...
Emotional Cartography: Technologies of the Self Excellent free book on emotion mapping, featuring essays by artists, designers, psychologists, cultural researchers, futurists and neuroscientists, exploring the political, social and cultural implications of dissecting the private world of human emotion with bleeding-edge technology....

This entry was posted on Friday, December 11th, 2009 at 12:07 am in culture, photography, psychology and was tagged cool, culture, photography, psychology, sociology, world.

Interesing article- apparently the pink=girls blue=boys thing is an PC overcompensation from when it was the other way http://bit.ly/5tLok1

This comment was originally posted on Twitter

40_thieves on December 11th, 2009 at 8:50 am

The Pink and Blue Projects – Korean artist dissects gender identity & developmental psychology by color http://ow.ly/KV56

brainpicker on December 11th, 2009 at 10:32 am

RT @brainpicker: The Pink and Blue Projects – Korean artist dissects gender identity & developmental psychology by color http://ow.ly/KV56

liweid1 on December 11th, 2009 at 10:42 am

Whoa — never realised pink and blue started out the other way around: The Pink and Blue Projects http://ow.ly/KV56 (via @brainpicker)

babyexpat on December 11th, 2009 at 10:45 am

cosmicblend on December 11th, 2009 at 10:49 am

retorta on December 11th, 2009 at 10:56 am

RT: @brainpicker: The Pink and Blue Projects – Korean artist dissects gender identity & developmental psychology by color http://ow.ly/KV56

randyhate on December 11th, 2009 at 10:57 am

Kaut kas te nesen par kr?s?m spriedel?ja: Par roz?, zilu,puik?m un mieten?m: http://ow.ly/KV56

designBlog_lv on December 11th, 2009 at 11:49 am

Kaut kas te nesen par kr?s?m spriedel?ja: Par roz?, zilu, puik?m un meiten?m: http://ow.ly/KV56

designBlog_lv on December 11th, 2009 at 11:53 am

[GReader] The Color of Gender http://bit.ly/8cGvSi

TheRoel on December 11th, 2009 at 12:25 pm

The Color of Gender: http://bit.ly/8Zczo8 (Fascinating story about the journey of pink and blue)

LenKendall on December 11th, 2009 at 12:39 pm

RT @LenKendall: The Color of Gender: http://bit.ly/8Zczo8 (Fascinating story about the journey of pink and blue)

VicHoon on December 11th, 2009 at 12:42 pm

I prefer green RT @LenKendall The Color of Gender: http://bit.ly/8Zczo8 (Fascinating story about the journey of pink and blue)

EstherSteinfeld on December 11th, 2009 at 12:46 pm

The color of gender. Cool photo project via @brainpicker http://bit.ly/8BpZHj)

marcusod on December 11th, 2009 at 3:44 pm

RT @brainpicker: In case you missed it: Korean artist JeongMee Yoon explores the sociology of color as gender identity http://ow.ly/KV56

imageglow on December 11th, 2009 at 4:20 pm

rafaeleminero on December 11th, 2009 at 4:58 pm

Fascinating work on cultural gender-specific color conditioning. Pushing pink on girls and blue on boys. http://tr.im/Hmb0

kaugie13 on December 11th, 2009 at 5:04 pm

Before WWII, pink was for boys + blue for girls. After WWII, effort to promote gender equality was overly successful. http://bit.ly/8A0CLN

nquizon on December 11th, 2009 at 5:50 pm

Dolro on December 12th, 2009 at 1:01 am

RT @brainpicker: Exploring the sociology of color as gender identity http://ow.ly/KV56

kevinadler on December 12th, 2009 at 11:38 am

http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2009/12/11/pink-and-blue-project/

hannakala on December 12th, 2009 at 4:20 pm

http://bit.ly/4MoWeA Pink was once a color associated w masculinity. The change 2 pink 4 girls & blue 4 boys happened in America after WW II

yuli_anty on December 13th, 2009 at 12:19 pm

tajmo on December 13th, 2009 at 2:22 pm

Interesting read -> The Color of Gender http://ow.ly/Lf3P

colourlovers on December 13th, 2009 at 3:55 pm

RT @colourlovers: Interesting read -> The Color of Gender http://ow.ly/Lf3P

jovialjacki on December 13th, 2009 at 4:01 pm

ohmgee on December 13th, 2009 at 4:02 pm

Los colores por genero se han vuelto universales RT @colourlovers: Interesting read -> The Color of Gender http://ow.ly/Lf3P

LuisferPerales on December 13th, 2009 at 4:04 pm

angelaobscura on December 13th, 2009 at 4:07 pm

.. pink was once a color associated with masculinity, considered to be a watered down red: http://j.mp/74Ka81

plizo on December 13th, 2009 at 4:56 pm

Interesting article: The Color of Gender: http://ow.ly/LCIE via @ohmgee

ekkirkland on December 13th, 2009 at 5:28 pm

BloomDiva on December 13th, 2009 at 5:29 pm

RT: @colourlovers: Interesting read -> The Color of Gender http://ow.ly/Lf3P

b_42 on December 13th, 2009 at 7:08 pm

quellebarbe on December 13th, 2009 at 8:37 pm

RT @quellebarbe: RT @colourlovers: Interesting read -> The Color of Gender http://ow.ly/Lf3P

johansigurdson on December 13th, 2009 at 8:37 pm

a dissection of gender stereotypes with cool photos to boot – RT @brainpicker: The Color of Gender http://ow.ly/1mIQB1

indumania on December 14th, 2009 at 2:19 am

I always thought so..its e colour u grow up wif tks to media (or ur mum) RT @colourlovers The Color of Gender http://ow.ly/Lf3P

zebur on December 14th, 2009 at 4:26 am

girdharcollege on December 14th, 2009 at 5:29 am

tterrain on December 14th, 2009 at 5:30 am

Fascinating: the story of pink and blue as gendered colors. Anthropology, history, psychology and photography! http://bit.ly/8A0CLN

AnnaCBee on December 14th, 2009 at 4:29 pm

RT @AnnaCBee: Fascinating: the story of pink &blue as gendered colors. Anthropology, history, psychology & photography! http://bit.ly/8A0CLN

ssejsllew on December 14th, 2009 at 4:48 pm

Pretty cool and visually interesting exploration RT @brainpicker The Color of Gender http://ow.ly/1mIQB1

TheDaveRamirez on December 16th, 2009 at 5:15 pm

Pink,Blue&Gender. Awesome pictures. RT@brainpickings The Color of Gender: http://bit.ly/8cGvSi

manyapan on December 19th, 2009 at 9:42 am

Blå og rosa. En fascinerende artikkel om “kjønnsfargene”: http://is.gd/5tXob

scorpy on December 19th, 2009 at 1:50 pm

For parents:
http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2009/12/11/pink-and-blue-project/

DiscoveryActon on December 22nd, 2009 at 2:01 pm

[...] cross-pollination. The story of cap & trade shed some light on the latest energy hoax. Gender identity and color had a surprising historical [...]

Brain Pickings Redux: Best of 2009 | Brain Pickings on April 10th, 2010 at 9:28 am