Did Hitler Make Pink Feminine?
Hitler marked homosexuals with a pink triangle to be killed for being “undesirables.” But did this make pink from masculine to feminine? It’s a lot more nuanced than that.
This may be shocking to hear, but pink used to be a manly color. Well, in some circles. The idea of gendered colors did not really become rigid until pretty recently. Before the 1930’s, different sources had different things to say about colors. For instance, one source from the Earnshaw’s Infants’ Department publication in 1918 states:
“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.”
However, this was not the case everywhere. Some publications shifted between pink and blue for things such as eye color, or hair color. So as I said, there really wasn’t anything set in stone before about the 1930’s, and even then, it wasn’t that strong an association.
For instance, a publication entitled Good Health: A Popular Annual on the Laws of Correct Living, as Developed by Medical Science, Etc. was published in 1869, and used the phrase “ pink for girls, blue for boys”.
According to Wikipedia:
“ One reason for the increased use of pink for girls and blue for boys was the invention of new chemical dyes, which meant that children’s clothing could be mass-produced and washed in hot water without fading. Prior to this time, most small children of both sexes wore white, which could be frequently washed. Another factor was the popularity of blue and white sailor suits for young boys, a fashion that started in the late 19th century. Blue was also the usual color of school uniforms, for boys and girls. Blue was associated with seriousness and study, while pink was associated with childhood and softness.”
So there are some pretty big reasons to suggest that ideas other than the “Hitler made pink feminine” idea came into play.
According to Pink and Blue: Telling the Boys from the Girls in America, a book written by historian Jo B. Paoletti, the shift from pink being a somewhat more masculine color to being more associated with femininity happened almost a decade before the Nazi’s implemented the use of different marks for different people. The pink triangle being among them.
Let’s also not forget that this most likely wouldn’t be mainstream knowledge until many years later. In fact, the fact that Hitler killed gays and other “undesirables” is still not known by many people, who believe that the only victims of the holocaust were the Jews. In fact, until the advent of the internet, I doubt much of anyone besides historians would really care much about history to even know this.
So it seems very unlikely that the Nazi’s using pink to signify gays would really influence people’s perceptions about the color much. It certainly did not change anyone’s minds about green, despite it being used to signify criminals. And I doubt anyone associates purple with Jehovah’s witnesses.
So it does not seem as if Nazi’s “made pink feminine” like what Hank Green or The Amazing Atheist believe. It is a lot more nuanced than that.
So let’s try not to play the “Everything that happened is Nazis” card.
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