Challenge : Blue is seen as the colour of girls, pink as colour of boys

This is what it actually was like in OTL before it got switched for some reason, leading to the axiom that blue is the colour of boys and pink the colour of girls (at least as far as toddlers' clothing goes, where these colour-coding ideas are the most common).

So, how could this OTL switcheroo be averted, leading to an ATL where baby boys in pink toddler clothes and baby girls in blue toddler clothes are seen as A-OK ?

P.S. Since I like cultural and social PODs that seem minor at face value, I just had to ask about this one as well.
 
You'd actually have to go back to the 1700s in France and Spain.

This belongs in Before 1900.

This definitely belongs in After 1900.
The colours pink and blue actually were a bit interchangeable for both genders well into the nineteenth century, although I thought in Britain at least pink gravitated towards the boys thanks to the red British uniforms. The colours didn't become associated with a specific gender till somewhere around WWII.
 
Huh, was the OTL switcheroo purely because of different American sensibilities ? :confused:

Pretty much. Apparently manufacturers in the 40s decided on this for marketing/sales figures for the Baby Boomers. With Europe looking to America culturally and too economically shattered to care for such matters, the proclivity spread over here. Though I think in Britain at least it's still relatively common to see whites and creams used for baby clothes, and blue seems to be quite common for girls (though pink isn't for boys).

You could possibly swing it the other way using a 'soldiers vs. the Virgin Mary' idea, but it's more likely to just remain mixed.
 
This definitely belongs in After 1900.
The colours pink and blue actually were a bit interchangeable for both genders well into the nineteenth century, although I thought in Britain at least pink gravitated towards the boys thanks to the red British uniforms. The colours didn't become associated with a specific gender till somewhere around WWII.
That is largely a myth though. If may be true to an extent in Britain and its colonies. In most of continental Europe the switch in perception happened much earlier. As has already been noted the colour coding was influenced by soldiers uniforms once they appeared. Those were in cheap blue for most protestant countries and in some catholic countries (Bavaria, French Guard units for example). Default for catholic countries were white and grey. Red was the dominating uniform colour only in a few richer countries. As for a long time the dominating armies of continental armies wore (at least partly) blue the change here happened during the 18th century: While Louis XV. of France or the soldiers king are on children pictures still wearing pink or red, already a young Fredrick the (not yet) Great wears more often blue on pictures as child, likewise Louis XVI. (Seems Prussia changed the colour code earlier than France)
Make Britain, Hanover and Poland the most influential armies in Europe instead of France, Prussia and Sweden and red might stand a chance as "male" colour for longer. Though the cheapness of blue still means it will become a widespread uniform colour, thus even that would be no guarantee.
 
Still, what happened in Europe in the eighteenth century has really no bearing on the challenge. after the second world war, America is in a position to completely dominate fashion culture. If the United states had flipped the other way and decided pink was for boys and blue for girls, for whatever weird reason that let them colour code gender in the first place, then that would've become the standard in Europe by default.
 
Still, what happened in Europe in the eighteenth century has really no bearing on the challenge. after the second world war, America is in a position to completely dominate fashion culture. If the United states had flipped the other way and decided pink was for boys and blue for girls, for whatever weird reason that let them colour code gender in the first place, then that would've become the standard in Europe by default.
Not persuaded. We are talking here about babys and toddlers after all, as everything older doesn´t really wears much colour coded stuff anymore. Most clothes are really useable for both genders at that age except for the colour. As the Europeans probably won´t even notice that the clothes were made the other sex in mind (unless US firms agressively advertise it, which might prove problematic for sales), they simply will buy them following their traditional colour coding. By the time minor decorations like flowers or cars on children clothing become widespread, both sides of the Atlantic will have widely different perceptions and the US is not any more in the absolute dominating position of production which can force their idea through, it has immediately after the war.
Not to mention that there has so far been given no reason why boys should get pink in the US. After all the default colour for workers clothes and uniforms (which were pretty much defining the perception of manliness and most likely influenced the industry´s decision) for America is blue as well, to a greater extent even than in Europe. To get red as default uniform colour in the US (thus retaining it as a male colour) you again have to go back to the 18th century to the war of independence.
 
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French army had regiments of cuirassers (10eme to 12eme) Dragoons (13-18eme regts) Chasseurs a Cheval all with pink facings on their cuffs, collars and lapels. Their trumpeters would typically have reversed colours. The trompette major of one dragoon regiment had a white bearskin, pink coat with sky blue lapels, cuffs and collar, with tons of lace. Rather fetching wot?

Have a look at http://www.napolun.com/mirror/web2.airmail.net/napoleon/cavalry_Napoleon.html

The site seems ok, although most top notch info on Napoleonic armies is still in book form eg Piegards L'Armee Napoleonienne which will set you back at around £600 give or take.
 
Not persuaded. We are talking here about babys and toddlers after all, as everything older doesn´t really wears much colour coded stuff anymore. Most clothes are really useable for both genders at that age except for the colour. As the Europeans probably won´t even notice that the clothes were made the other sex in mind (unless US firms agressively advertise it, which might prove problematic for sales), they simply will buy them following their traditional colour coding. By the time minor decorations like flowers or cars on children clothing become widespread, both sides of the Atlantic will have widely different perceptions and the US is not any more in the absolute dominating position of production which can force their idea through, it has immediately after the war.
Not to mention that there has so far been given no reason why boys should get pink in the US. After all the default colour for workers clothes and uniforms (which were pretty much defining the perception of manliness and most likely influenced the industry´s decision) for America is blue as well, to a greater extent even than in Europe. To get red as default uniform colour in the US (thus retaining it as a male colour) you again have to go back to the 18th century to the war of independence.

How do the colors of yellow and green, which were often given pre birth and each color was used for both sexes, fit in the scheme of things?
 
There was a long standing understanding and belief about colours, White was the colour of phlegm (phlegmatic), red of blood and of being sanguine, yellow of yellow bile or choler, black melancholic. Other colours also had their own properties. Blue of course being difficult to create, or very expensive eg lapis lazuli was therefore used to represent the VM. Light blue was often used for girls as it was seen as the lighter version of the already feminised dark blue (because of the VM) however this started to switch, not entirely sure when, probably nineteenth century in the Anglosphere? Pink as you can see in my earlier post was still a useable colour in a masculine environment well into the 1830s as the Legion d'ille et Villaine formerly the 21eme de Ligne (prior to that Regt Vaubecourt) in the Fr army had pink facings during the Restoration. No British unit did though, the nearest were the Pompadours who had a sort of purple shade. Having said all that your average redcoats redcoat wasn't dye fast by any stretch and theirs ended up any shade from a crappy dirty pink through to turd brown and all shades between.
 
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