So, girls being 'pink' was popularised by Hitler

[lowrib]

Always knew pink for girls was evil!

Seeing as it's lazy journalism week, I'll simply cut and paste

"The BBC has an interesting story on the impact the color pink can have on a girl ...
According to the story, in the early 1900s, pink was the preferred color for boys while girls were adorned with blue, which was considered the paler, more delicate shade on the color spectrum. Go shopping for kids clothes today, as you probably well know, and you'll hit rack after rack of princessy pink crap for the girls and rack after rack of cool grays and blues for the boys.

But I digress.
Hitler. I was just getting there. So where does he come in?
Apparently he's to blame for the role reversal of colors and gender. According to the story, when he shipped gays and lesbians off to concentration camps, he ordered the ones who could be "cured" to have a pink triangle attached to them. And soon the color became one and the same with femininity."

also

"I'm a 19th-c. historian. This is all true, although by far the most common color for babies and small children in both England and the U.S. was white--undoubtedly because it was easy to wash and bleach. The link between blue and femininity persisted even into the 1950s: the "girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes" and the blue dresses of Disney's Cinderella and Snow White!"

(ref this page)

and from the BBC site

"What prompted the switch is unclear, but it had been made by the time Adolf Hitler ordered the classification of homosexuals. Those deemed "curable" were sent to concentration camps and labelled with a pink triangle. This suggests that by then, pink was associated with femininity.
But some commentators now believe pink dominates the upbringing of little girls, and this may be damaging.

Sue Palmer, author of Toxic Childhood, says the "total obsession" with pink stunts girls' personalities."

And my 12yr old son likes wearing pink. I think he does it to be contrary mainly.

Wel I just looked at my children and my son is wearing old faded pink pyjamas and my dd is wearing yellow pyjamas. My son has a handbag and puts his cars in it, he paints his toe nails. My dd does football as one of her extra curricular activities.

I'm not at all stupid thanks, I was just discussing the article, which is interesting. You position is that it's an absolute given that the article has NO basis whatsoever. I'm not 100% convinced of that, but I think you're probably right that it doesn not, but I wouldn't claim to know. Even so, discussion is interesting.

"Actually to me it sounds like you are already dealing in sex stereotyping with your views on food and the innateness of pink, so it's hardly surprising that your daughter is picking up on it."

1. my daughter isn't a pink sort of girl. She went through a very brief unencouraged period of loving pink.
2. I tried for years to stick my head in the sand and serve the whole familly vegetarian food. food that all my friends and sisters and mtoher, aunt etc love.

don't ban the pink though, otherwise they might become obsessed with it as adults, a la Jordan

""What prompted the switch is unclear, but it had been made by the time Adolf Hitler ordered the classification of homosexuals. Those deemed "curable" were sent to concentration camps and labelled with a pink triangle. This suggests that by then, pink was associated with femininity."

actually, this suggests that Hitler was used to pink being a boys' colour too: think about it: gay men who could be cured of liking men (therefore being a bit girly) were given a colour associated with boys and therefore masculinity.
makes a lot more sense when you think of it like that : pink because you can become boyish.

The science museum had an exhibition called "who am I?" It had some articles coloured blue and pink.
If the articles had no colour my friend's boy would pick out a tool kit and say it was for boys, while a sewing kit was for girls.

When the tool kit was coloured pink, he picked it out as suitable for a girl because it was pink.

He was 4. He knew pink was a "girls" colour.

Interesting stuff.

this bit about Hitler is so much rot IYAM. So if the Nazis decided that gay people in concentration camps were to wear a pink triangle (and how do we know it was that screwball Hitler specifically who chose the colour?), how has that influenced people to dress their boys in blue and their girls in pink?

So the world knowing the gays had to wear a pink triangle collectively decided: "OMG from now on we must dress our boys in blue so no one thinks they are gay like those inmates in German concentration camps (?) - yeah and maybe our girls in pink!"

I don't see it personally

Pink is definitely not innate for girls. INterestingly, in Japan where I live pink is seen as more of a "neutral" colour. All the children in some kindergartens are issues with pink sunhats. They all look so cute walking home together with these hats on, boys and girls together. Men wear a LOT more pink here than they do at home but red is definitely a girl's colour, whereas in the UK I think red is more neutral (little boys are often seen in red jumpers). All of it is social conditioning, though.

I agree with Maggie that men and women prefer different food. An horticultural lecturer told me that every year she does a little survey at her seminars: she asks the group if anyone loves avocados. Its always the women who do, and often the men pull disgusted faces. But thats another topic.

I think everyone is paying too much attention to the issue of color, when the shape should also be a concern. Triangles should be considered evil as well!
After many hours research I have come to the conclusion that Hitler was, in fact, a member of The Illuminati. His prejudice against those who claim homosexual orientation is proof of yet another form of evil associated with this horrible shape.
This shape is too often used to as representation by groups who commit heinous acts. A true American would never allow a triangle in their home after learning the truth about this evil shape! Time and time again the triangle has proven itself to be a source of the vile and wicked actions of mankind. Anywhere that this symbol appears evidence can be found of nefarious goings-on.
My own children, when they come of age, shall be explicitly warned against the destructive nature of the triangle. Only a degenerate would allow something so horrendous to be in their presence.

Pink is definitely not innate for girls

interestingly, female monkeys have been shown to have an innate preference for red /pink

I remember reading Little House in the Big Woods, by Laura Ingalls Wilder.
America, early 1870s.

Laura has brown hair and brown eyes, so she has to wear pink hair ribbons, her sister Mary has blonde hair and blue eyes, and so she has to wear blue hair ribbons.

It says something like "Laura was so tired of pink, and Mary was so tired of blue. But Laura must wear pink ribbons because her hair was brown."

And then one day they manage to somehow swap ribbons, and keep catching little glimpses of their plaits all day long, and smiling secretly.

So it seems you had to dress to complement your colouring back then!

I thought the transition happened earlier (post-WW1).

It is interesting.