When the birth of Prince George, the son of Prince William and Kate Middleton was announced a few days ago, landmarks around the world flashed blue lights to announce that the new royal baby was indeed a boy. The signals marked a cultural practice where boys are supposed to like all things blue and girls supposedly like all things pink. We investigate the reasons behind the common cultural phenomenon.
The biological basis
Even though there isn’t enough data to support this theory, but it appears that Newcastle University neuroscientists Yazhu Ling and Anya Hurlbert may have found an evolutionary basis for why girls like pink and boys like blue. According to the study conducted by them, women prefer reds, including shades of pink, because their eyes are physically hard wired to perceive colors at that end of the spectrum better than other shades.
The cultural basis
Prior to the 1920s, it was customary to dress infants and toddler of both sexes only in white dresses. During the 1920s, younger children began to be dresses in colors with boys being dressed in pink and girls being dressed in blue. It wasn’t until the 1940s that the color assignment was flipped and it has stayed indoctrinated in western culture ever since.
The psychological basis
For the past 70 years, parents in the western world have been dressing baby boys in blue and baby girls in pink. That means that at least 3 generations have been indoctrinated to recognize blue and pink and gender specific colors. A study conducted by Princeton University researchers claims that as soon as children, especially girls, enter the gender identification age, they begin rejecting the color assigned to the other gender. Dubbed the Pink Frilly Dress phase, this stage is crucial in the psychological development of the child.
