Colour Theory and the Psychology of Gender
It can be useful to approach the history of gender bias from various different angles. These include politics, culture and psychology…
Today we want to talk about one that the designers and other creatives among us might be familiar with:
It’s Colour Theory.
Colour is a big part of culture, and the ways we live, think and feel. Always has been.
We find nature calming for the same reason we use ‘green rooms’ to influence stillness and focus.
Purple is considered a ‘royal’ colour because Purple dye was historically the most expensive.
Inuit languages have 17 words for ‘White’.
The colour Yellow can indicate a hazard in many industries, happiness or sunshine in an emotional context, or mental illness in literature.
But what’s its influence in terms of gender?
The relationship between colours and genders has changed dramatically over the years.
With our worldview having evolved to understand gender as a fluid concept rather than a rigid binary dictating part of human identity, that perceived relationship is more disrupted now than ever. That disruption can affect how we use and see colour in almost any context.
Colour in the public eye.
In terms of colour and marketing, advertising and brand have notoriously operated with a binary view of how to appeal to men vs women in the past (Madmen anyone?). Even now we talk about the legacy of those ‘feminine’ and ‘masculine’ colours.
Studies have shown that people will treat the same baby differently if they are dressed in pink or blue, assuming their gender and changing the type of toys they offer the baby; a squeaky hammer versus a doll, for instance.
It’s only a small step from there to telling boys how they ought to ‘suck it up’, initiating toxic masculinity, or encouraging girls to be ‘nice’ instead of ‘bossy’, beginning to oppress them based on their gender.
It all starts when we differentiate male and female characteristics, and colour binaries are actually one of the earliest markers we use.
We often associate warmer, softer colours with femininity, but did you know that Pink used to be traditionally a ‘boys’ colour, and not a ‘girls’ one?
There is evidence of boys often dressed in Pink from the nineteenth century. Children's clothing catalogues from the early 20th century are even quoted as stating:
“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 color, is more suitable for the boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is prettier for the girl.”
To me this seems like our gender associations with colour can support stereotypes that we need to unlearn.
Politics of Pink.
Pink has a changing, contentious and political history.
‘Mamie Pink’ was exemplified by first lady Mamie Eisenhower as the colour worn by ‘ladylike women’ in the 1950s.
The line from the song ‘Think Pink’ in the film Funny Face, “Banish the black, burn the blue” can be interpreted as rejecting those colours because they were commonly worn by women during wartime in factory settings and under general austerity. Therefore the opposite: vibrant, happy pink, represented a move towards a more glamorous life and better times.
In other pop culture examples: Women in motorsport have marketed themselves by wearing and driving all Pink to emphasise their female presence in a male dominated sport.
In the film Grease, the ‘pink ladies’ are associated more with rebellion and female empowerment than with traditional or oppressive notions of ‘ladylike’, Mamie-esque women’s roles.
Mamie Eisenhower has been quoted as saying things like “Ike runs the country, I turn the pork chops”. But, another first lady, Hillary Clinton, a role model for many and probably the first woman to have a real shot at the presidency, appears publicly in Pink just as much as Mamie did…
So we can’t go blaming Pink for everything.
Blue for a Boy...
Conversely, we now think of Blue as a ‘boys’ colour.
When you study the history of colours, one of the most prominent and influential historical representations of Blue comes from as far back as the 14th century. In the imagery of Christian theology, the dress of the Virgin Mary is almost always Blue.
You can probably picture the iconic portrait of the ‘Madonna and Child’, and the mood that it evokes. That sky blue connotes tranquility, purity and stability, and has since been associated with femininity and motherhood.
Interestingly, this example goes against some of our harmful modern stereotypes of women being more ‘emotional’. By the same token though, when we generalise that women should be ‘tranquil’ and ‘pure’, we meet another set of damaging results...
The Takeaway:
It’s interesting to see how colour and gender have danced over the decades, and the main lesson which emerges is that rigidly assigning one set of colours, like any set of qualities, to one gender… doesn’t work.
Partly that’s because we are lucky to have a more flexible understanding of gender now.
It’s also because things like the colour you wear, or what kind of job you do, or the way you speak, or the music you listen to, can never be assigned to gender, only to individuals.
Maybe we should get curious about what associations we pick up from colour, be it in Branding, Fashion or Art. This is one more way to unpick biased thinking and become a bit more fluid, focusing on the individual, not the gendered details we notice.