Pretty in
Pink
(or Blue?)
Marketing & the Gendering of Pink
The bond of femininity and pink is rather young, shaped by marketing, consumer culture, and historical events. The early 20th Century regarded pink as a gender-neutral color or even a masculine one. Several fashion guides contained pink for boys and blue for girls, putting forth the claim that pink was bold, strong, and an active hue; on the other hand, blue was associated with calmness, softness, and delicacy- a view that was associated with femininity. However, a radical transformation approached pink by the mid-century, branding it as a definitive color of femininity.
The shift in gender norms was largely driven by the marketing strategies post-World War II. In the 1940s and 1950s, manufacturers and advertisers were motivated to produce distinct consumer identities for boys and girls to boost sales. Several clothing brands and toy companies began associating pink to girls and blue to boys, with the idea of parents buying separate products for their children based on gender. Henceforth, department stores were a major contributor to the display of pink merchandise in the girls’s sections; conditioning all that pink was inherently feminine.
Mamie Eisenhower, the First Lady of the United States, known for her love of pink, was an influential figure in the cultural shift. She popularized pink through its inclusion in fashion and interior design. The pink furnishings decorated the White House, and her pink inauguration gown stood as an iconic fashion statement. Such colossal influence caused the shade to be termed the “First Lady Pink.” This caused the pink color to be adopted as a fashionable, elegant, and distinctly feminine color by women, emboldening its association with womanhood. (Marina, 2022).
As we stepped towards the 1960s and 1970s, pink was deeply ingrained in the fashion, cosmetics, and brandings targeted towards women. As a result of mass advertising and pop culture, pink’s link with femininity was continuously reinforced. A prominent contributor to this trend was Barbie by Mattel in 1959. The legendary pink packaging, clothing, and accessories turned Barbie into a global icon of glamour and femininity. The toy industry experienced a huge success and further emphasized pink in marketing girls’ toys, clothing, and bedroom decor.
Apart from this, the domain of beauty played another huge role in the branding of cosmetics, perfumes, and personal care products by featuring pink. It reinforced the idea that pink was not just beautiful but also an emblem of youth, softness, and desirability. In terms of media, magazine ads and several television commercials conjointly contributed to the deepening of the connection of pink with a woman’s identity. (Ma & Wang, 2024).
Through the use of strategic marketing and cultural influence, pink was strongly established in Western gender norms. Once a gender-neutral or masculine color transformed into the ultimate symbol of femininity, not as a cause of the qualitative nature of the color, but through decades of deliberate branding and societal reinforcement.