Toxic Masculinity - Colour and gender

The beginnings of gender stereotyping and implementing outdated expectations of gender is implanted into our minds at an early age, with the simple use of colour, the idea of 'blue is for boys and pink is for girls'. When buying clothes for a new-born the common question is asked whether or not to buy pink or blue and that is based on what gender that child should be. in 1918 an article in Ladies Home Journal advised: “The generally accepted rule is pink for the boys, and blue for the girls. The reason is that pink, being a more decided and stronger colour, is more suitable for the boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is prettier for the girl.”

In other words, a century ago people looked at the same colours, saw them completely differently than we do today and slotted them in differently to their cultural stereotypes.

This current idea of pink tones for girls and blue tones for boys wasn’t established until the 1940’s. In the 70’s feminist movements were moved towards girls’ clothing being more gender neutral, this is stated to have been to make ‘girls more assertive’.

This was a trend which didn’t last long in the mid 1980’s, gender-neutral clothing began to go out of style. Prenatal testing played a big role here. Suddenly parents and friends could learn the sex of their unborn baby and begin shopping on the basis of gender.

Leaving this ideal implanted into our minds that feminine products should have a pink hue, evident in my research into the different makeup brands, which I had also identified.

Yet the idea of having separate colours to identify the different genders is again fading, leading retailer John Lewis recently abolished clothing labels on their children’s clothing ranges, by removing different labels on different garments. The progressive move has been praised by many customers, this show that there is a need for more gender-neutral products in different industries. And this move also may lead to a difference on the standard expectation of gender stereotypes on the generation that are being introduced into a world where less gender norms are expected to be abided by.

This makes me consider the colour selections within my design, I will be attempting to avoid any factors of genderisation within the design making it open to selection without judgment from society between both of the genders this is something I also need to be taking into consideration with the design placement of the logotype and the logo itslef.