Questão 27 - FACISA 2013/1

TEXT C

The Color of Gender

A checkered history of pink and blue

When did girls get pegged with pink and boys with blue? According to Smithsonian magazine, the hues’ history is a study in contradictions. In 1918, the trade publication Earnshaw’s Infants’ Department reported that “pink, being a more decided and stronger color, is more suitable for the boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is prettier for the girl.” This sentiment stuck until the 1940s, when retailers sensed a shift in parents’ preferences and navy became the more masculine shade. Then with the advent of women’s liberation, many mothers declined rosier “girlie” tones for their daughters. Today, the pendulum has swung again, with generation Xers opting to dress their girls in the pink items they were denied as children. This time, however, it’s more than just color coding. What was then a simple pink blouse now gets a princess patch and a shower of glitter. According to researchers, kids don’t understand gender until age seven, so we can assume that the cotton candy cuteness is for Mom.

Reader’s Digest, July/August 2012.

TEXT C informs us that attitudes regarding the use of the colors pink and blue for girls and boys