Boys didn't wear pink when I was a kid and "boys' toys" weren't pink either, but pink wasn't a dominant colour for the girls then either. As a girl, blue was my favourite colour. We were spared the sea of magenta and fuchsia and the princess outfits that seem ubiquitous now. I blame Disney and My Little Pony.
Yes, I suspect it used to be more an American thing, though the magenta/fuchsia reminds me how the colours were different from the 60s to the 70s, and that might be part of it: I think orange, green and yellow were a lot more popular for children's clothes and toy packaging when I was young, though parental distaste for icky-sweet stuff might also have been part of it :-)
Not really. I was aware of this convention, but believed it applied to infants.
On the other hand, we had conventional colors in my household. Many things came in red/pink, blue, and one other colour. One sister usually got the red; the other sister usually got the blue; I usually got the green-or-whatever. I think my position was the best.
Society was still locked into the Pink / Blue dichotomy, but it was being popularly deprecated. I don't recall ever wearing pink, as a boy, but then pink boy's clothing would have to have been custom made, so....
As to gender role enforcement, my grandparents were...surprisingly liberal. I wanted a secondhand EZ-Bake oven, from a neighbor's garage sale, so I could bake like Grandma did. They looked at each other, discussed it, and decided they'd let me have it, as that was what the modern advice about child raising was. It didn't harm me, and I've always loved baking, since. (Not that I often got mixes for the dammed thing. They cost money, and mixes were rare as new batteries, when I was a kid.)
I read both "boys" and "girls" books, in school, for pleasure, and took a lot of abuse for that. But I like to think it was broadening, in several ways. If nothing else, it kept me from having problems (as some guys I've known do) with reading books which have a female protagonist. (I think because I don't envision myself as the protagonist, but envision them as their own person, with me along for the ride.) Then again, most of the kids on my block were girls, so, if one wanted playmates, one played their games, too. (And most of those girls were older than I was, and knew how to fight, too. One of them tended to bite, when she fought. Ow.)
So...yeah, kind of? But not so strictly as one might think there'd be, given that I grew-up between 1964 and 1982?
Not in the least. There were no boys in our family so no need to differentiate between boys and girls. Before the days of ultrasounds there was no way to know which gender you were going to have, so most parents ended up buying neutral coloured clothes for the original layette - pale green and yellow and white were allowed for boys or girls.
The fashions of the time were sixties and seventies colours, which were usually bright - the earliest fashion colours I remember were pumpkin, magenta, purple and lime green. The boys wore those colours too, if they were lucky enough to be able to afford them. Think Carnaby Street.
But our clothes were no usually very fashionable. Since I was the youngest they were usually hand-me-downs. I got them from my sisters, and from my boy cousin and my girl cousin - I was just as likely to be wearing my boy cousins old shapeless play clothes as anything else.
I do remember that my sister and I were each given a pink petticoat, with stiff lacy skirts. They looked rather like tutus and my older sister who was into ballet was absolutely thrilled. I liked mine too. But that is the only frilly pink feminine thing I can remember ever getting. I vaguely remember a dress that was depression green, two that were navy blue and one that was white with red and yellow and green and black figures printed on it. And there were three dresses that were made for us out of flowered print cotton, one for each of us - green flowers, blue flowers and red and pink flowers.
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On the other hand, we had conventional colors in my household. Many things came in red/pink, blue, and one other colour. One sister usually got the red; the other sister usually got the blue; I usually got the green-or-whatever. I think my position was the best.
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Um...yes and no.
Society was still locked into the Pink / Blue dichotomy, but it was being popularly deprecated. I don't recall ever wearing pink, as a boy, but then pink boy's clothing would have to have been custom made, so....
As to gender role enforcement, my grandparents were...surprisingly liberal. I wanted a secondhand EZ-Bake oven, from a neighbor's garage sale, so I could bake like Grandma did. They looked at each other, discussed it, and decided they'd let me have it, as that was what the modern advice about child raising was. It didn't harm me, and I've always loved baking, since. (Not that I often got mixes for the dammed thing. They cost money, and mixes were rare as new batteries, when I was a kid.)
I read both "boys" and "girls" books, in school, for pleasure, and took a lot of abuse for that. But I like to think it was broadening, in several ways. If nothing else, it kept me from having problems (as some guys I've known do) with reading books which have a female protagonist. (I think because I don't envision myself as the protagonist, but envision them as their own person, with me along for the ride.) Then again, most of the kids on my block were girls, so, if one wanted playmates, one played their games, too. (And most of those girls were older than I was, and knew how to fight, too. One of them tended to bite, when she fought. Ow.)
So...yeah, kind of? But not so strictly as one might think there'd be, given that I grew-up between 1964 and 1982?
From:
no subject
The fashions of the time were sixties and seventies colours, which were usually bright - the earliest fashion colours I remember were pumpkin, magenta, purple and lime green. The boys wore those colours too, if they were lucky enough to be able to afford them. Think Carnaby Street.
But our clothes were no usually very fashionable. Since I was the youngest they were usually hand-me-downs. I got them from my sisters, and from my boy cousin and my girl cousin - I was just as likely to be wearing my boy cousins old shapeless play clothes as anything else.
I do remember that my sister and I were each given a pink petticoat, with stiff lacy skirts. They looked rather like tutus and my older sister who was into ballet was absolutely thrilled. I liked mine too. But that is the only frilly pink feminine thing I can remember ever getting. I vaguely remember a dress that was depression green, two that were navy blue and one that was white with red and yellow and green and black figures printed on it. And there were three dresses that were made for us out of flowered print cotton, one for each of us - green flowers, blue flowers and red and pink flowers.