Gender Stereotypes - Blue and Pink by Lisandra Botelho https://padlet.com/lisandra7almeida/t9cjeukeutk590oy A padlet created by Lisandra Botelho based on the TedTalk "the danger of a single story" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. en-us 2022-07-24 20:07:18 UTC 2025-11-27 17:17:25 UTC hello@padlet.com The blue and pink stereotype lisandra7almeida https://padlet.com/lisandra7almeida/t9cjeukeutk590oy/wish/2248871422 It's in the dictionary: stereotype is "an idea, concept, or model that is established as a standard.  Standard, in turn, is that which is considered "right" and can be used as an example.

For centuries, clothing dyes were very expensive and children of any gender wore white dresses until they were about six years old. Shades of pink and blue only began to be associated with children in the early 20th century, just before the First World War.

In 1918, in an article in Earnshaw's Infants' Department, it was advocated that blue was for girls and pink for boys, the opposite of what is seen today. This was because pink was seen as "strong and decisive" and blue as "delicate and kind". The color palette changes, but the machismo is still explicit.

In the late 1960s there were social movements and it was common to wear unisex clothes. From 1980 on, pink definitely became a "feminine" color.

To learn more about this history, I recommend the book Pink and Blue: Telling the Girls From the Boys in America, by Jo B. Paoletti, available at Amazon.com: Pink and Blue: Telling the Boys from the Girls in America: 9780253001177: Paoletti, Jo B.: Books

]]> 2022-07-24 22:56:17 UTC https://padlet.com/lisandra7almeida/t9cjeukeutk590oy/wish/2248871422 Dialoguing with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie lisandra7almeida https://padlet.com/lisandra7almeida/t9cjeukeutk590oy/wish/2248872020 Nowadays this idea that gender has color is not as strong as it used to be, as it was in the early 2000s, for example.

I can give the example of an uncle who wouldn't let his children get pink toys, pink birthday party balls, wear pink clothes and everything else because they were boys. I remember my mother separating blue balls and gifts from my birthdays for him, because if I ran out they wouldn't have the gifts.

For my uncle, pink was a color specifically for girls and if his sons wore it he would question the sexual orientation of boys. As time went by he changed this idea and today he doesn't think like he used to, but it was a long way until this happened, because that is what he was told his whole life.

The idea that my uncle had in the old days matches the Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's line:

"It is impossible to talk about the single story without talking about power... Power is the ability not just to tell the story of another person, but to make it the definitive story of that person... The single story creates stereotypes... The consequence of the single story is: It robs people of dignity. It makes our recognition of our equal humanity difficult. It emphasizes how we are different rather than how we are similar.

]]> 2022-07-24 22:59:36 UTC https://padlet.com/lisandra7almeida/t9cjeukeutk590oy/wish/2248872020 Boy wears blue and girl wears pink lisandra7almeida https://padlet.com/lisandra7almeida/t9cjeukeutk590oy/wish/2248872649 The brazilian singer Fialho made a song about gender stereotypes called "boy wears blue, girl wears pink?" released in 2019 as criticism of the speech of the new Minister of Women, Family and Human Rights, Damares Alves, about the color of boys' and girls' clothes: "a new era has begun, boy wears blue and girl wears pink." 

The song is available at: (1070) Menino usa Azul, Menina usa Rosa? | Fialho | Webclip Making of - YouTube

]]> 2022-07-24 23:02:28 UTC https://padlet.com/lisandra7almeida/t9cjeukeutk590oy/wish/2248872649 Studying more about the blue and pink stereotype lisandra7almeida https://padlet.com/lisandra7almeida/t9cjeukeutk590oy/wish/2248874424 In order to bring more knowledge on the subject of "gender stereotypes-blue and pink" I bring the article "The Effect of Pink/Blue Clothing on Implicit and Explicit Gender-Related Self-Cognition and Attitudes Among Men". The article seeks to examine the effects of men's pink clothing on gender-related self-cognition and gender attitudes.

Ishii, K., Numazaki, M. and Tado, Y. The Effect of Pink/Blue Clothing on Implicit and Explicit Gender-Related Self-Cognition and Attitudes Among Men. [online]. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/jpr.12241 

]]> 2022-07-24 23:06:25 UTC https://padlet.com/lisandra7almeida/t9cjeukeutk590oy/wish/2248874424 Conclusion lisandra7almeida https://padlet.com/lisandra7almeida/t9cjeukeutk590oy/wish/2248874828 When I think about "the danger of the single story" my head goes straight to the stereotypes I suffered during my life. I believe that every woman from the 2000's on has already suffered something related to the "pink or blue" question, today things are more relaxed about it. 

When I was a child I didn't like the color pink because it was summarized to characteristics that gave girls "delicate, whiny, fragile" and other things, which I didn't see myself being and didn't want to be. For a long time even I myself believed that if I had and wore pink I would be reduced to these characteristics. Which is not true, but that's what I heard throughout my childhood from adults.

Even with time, knowing that these characteristics are wrongly pointed out, I didn't like pink, because I still associated these characteristics with colors. It took a while until I finally accepted that pink is one of my favorite colors and that wearing it doesn't mean any of the things they said before, the meaning they gave to the color. 

The choice of this theme was because of the memory that leads me to the fact that today I love to buy pink things and in the past I hated it, and the idea that my uncle created in my cousins' heads for a long time.

Stereotypes can easily change someone's view about something or someone, it can be negative, as most of the time, or positive.



]]> 2022-07-24 23:08:05 UTC https://padlet.com/lisandra7almeida/t9cjeukeutk590oy/wish/2248874828 Reference lisandra7almeida https://padlet.com/lisandra7almeida/t9cjeukeutk590oy/wish/2248875004 Quando – e por que – o rosa se tornou cor de menina? | Super. [online]. Disponível em: Quando – e por que – o rosa se tornou cor de menina? | Super (abril.com.br)

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