Why is pink for girls and blue for boys?

Are our hunter-gathers ancestors or capitalism to thank for the pink-blue gender divide?

Sources:

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[joeygrl]

The biggest problem I have noticed with pink/blue gender roles is that it's much easier for a girl to break free from them. Does your toddler girl want blue shoes? That's fine... but if your toddler son wants pink shoes he's often told "those are for girls". Early on you can see why boys would feel there is something wrong with being a girl, because as early as toddler hood they are told that things that are feminine are not okay for them to have, while girls have more slack to like boy and girl things. 

You probably wouldn't let your son be Pinky Pie from My Little Pony or Elsa from Frozen but there would be no issue for a girl to be Batman. We create the male stereotype bubble early on for boys. Sure your girl can be a tomboy, but if your son is a more emotional individual he's negatively called a "sissy". 

[sweet.dreams]

im a guy and i love pink, i hate when all the mens clothing in stores is dull and drab and boring, i like bright and pastel colors - i am an artist and designer and i study color and like to chose colors that fit my personality and pink fits me perfectly

[FrankiKaye]

When I was a kid, my favorite color was "Stripes!" because I thought it was unfair to the colors to pick one favorite... I still think that way sometimes.

[Misswtfudge]

I grew up HATING the colour pink. I would never wear and never use it. Only because i thought i'd be look weak or too girly to other people. That's so messed up and thinking about the things i would do to avoid being associated to the colour freaks me out. But i now love pink and i couldn't care less what people think when i say i like pink!

[Whimswirl]

I have always liked the colour pink.When I was in kindergarten I used to treasure my pink crayons and not let anyone one else use it lol. Pink is life

[DacyAndEric]

Seems like women have just gotten all the male hand me downs... heels, pink, long hair, etc. 

[abrahamchapman]

While I'll agree that pink and, to a lessor extent,  purple are generally considered to be girls colors, blue is not a boy's color. There are many articles of girls and women's clothing, including heels and skirts and underwear that are blue. What I witness in society is that women and girls can wear almost whatever styles and colors they want, including styles clearly designed to mimic men's and boy's wear, while incurring little or no negative consequences, while men can only wear certain styles and colors for fear of having their masculinity challenged. It is gender discrimination primarily, if not solely, against men.

[TiBunCosplay]

Even as a kid I never understood why colors were gendered. And now I really don't think they should be gendered.

[vcostawoods]

I babysit a three year old boy, and his favorite show and character is Doc McStuffins. When asked what he wanted to be for Halloween, he naturally replied Doc, ad in response his father got upset and said he couldn't dress up like a girl. As a girl, its uncomfortable, and disheartening to not be able to speak up. Had they had a daughter, no one would blink if she was Batman, (as stated in another comment) and its indicative of how we teach children that being feminine is degrading.

[nowisgoodme]

I think as you said in the end, it's a lot about cultural differences. When I live in southern Africa (Lesotho) I go so much flack for wanting to wear RED traditional clothing, because red in their culture is strictly for boys (tradition of hunting and getting blood on everything) while BLUE is appropriate for girls. Everytime someone tries to tell me it our blue-pink scheme comes from the hunting and gathering days, I tell this story.

[centaura]

I thought the whole color thing was because of the famous two paintings called "Pinky" and "Boy Blue"?

[VKingMD]

Why is it that women can wear bright colors while men can mostly only wear muted dark colors? I'll use pants as an example. Women's pants come in every color and print you can imagine, but men's pants are by and large navy, black, brown, beige, gray, or white. T-shirts allow a little more color, but prints are still a no no for men. Why Cristen!? Why!?

[amywillis]

i'm a girl who likes green!  i also crochet baby clothes and blankets sometimes, usually in "gender neutral" colors such as yellow, green, light orange, and white. 

[simsalasaskia]

Oh my god :O I had to wait 20 years to have this question answered. When I was about 4 I was watching one of those game-shows where a boy's team is up against a girl's team and the boys would wear blue and the girls would wear red. When I asked my mum why that was always the case she simply said, "Well that's just how it is". Clearly not satisfied with this response I decided that day, that my favourite colour would be blue and that nothing pink would ever come near me :D
Thanks for making awesome They are super informative for me as a Social Anthropology student and you are just adorbs!
P.S.:My pink aversion has since cleared up but blue is still my favourite colour :P

[ecaron]

Not wanting to be apart of the sterotype of liking pink always made me choose blue. Pink to me is a very girly and femine color in which I do not like associating with. Blue to me is steping out of the cultural norm to which society is based on and being an individual.

[MewWolf]

They're all just colours.  I don't think there's any gender to colours.  I find that once kids get older, everyone wears all kinds of colours.  In high school I knew a boy who had a pink shirt and a girl who didn't own anything pink.  Men wear pink sweaters or pink ties, and that's considered just as classy as other colours.

[LegoDaleks]

The non-scientific 2007 study you cited is the reason I hate science sometimes (at least public sector & pop science) since it's not scientific at all, it's pure conjecture. It always comprises of the same things: 1. pretend some modern, Western cultural norm is an inherent trait that all humans are born with. 2. Use a purely speculative example about the stone age with nothing to back it up.
This is literally no different from religion.
It's a crude way of ending the nature vs. nurture debate by basically removing the 'nurture' side of the debate from the equation. Might as well believe in destiny.

[SapphireNinja]

I'm a GIRL and my favorite color is BLUE!!

[pinkivyluvu]

My 7yr son likes the color pink. He was making a pretend bracelet one day out of a bright pink slinky and we were taking turns wearing it. One of my friends came over with her husband and he was all excited showing her his bracelet when she said 'pinks for girls'.. His whole demeanor changed, he lowered his head and took off his bracelet then tried handing it to me ' you can wear it mom I don't want to anymore' .. To which I replied Pinks not just for girls, A lot of boys like pink too! Your great grandpa Goss wears pink tinted glasses and pink shirts all the time! He smiled at me and put the bracelet back on his wrist. We must be careful with our words, with the whole this is for boys and this is for girls or theres going to be a lot of kids feeling bad, wondering whats wrong with them and feeling cast out for which color they like.

[Kanekonagase]

I never actually cared much about colors as a kid. I would use blue, purple, pink, red, a bit of yellow... Never that fond of green. However, as I grew older, I found myself more attracted to blue and purple, and today, I just generally like bright colors.
I never understood the "pink for girls, blue for boys thing"- When I ask mothers of young children about it, they say that it just makes it easier for other people to identify whether the kid is a "he" or a "she".