Our search for a new bag continues and has raised an important question to me: why are female hiking bags almost invariably pink? Oh there was one that was a light shade of purple but every other bag that we saw today was pink. It's almost as though women and girls aren't allowed to do 'masculine' activities like hiking without them being 'feminised' by making them pink and girly. Yes, some women(maybe most women) even do like pink but not all do.
Men's bags were on show in a variety of colours, they were not confined to the stereotypical baby colour of blue so why given women only pink?
Indeed if we go back to the colours being for babies pink for a girl is a recent idea - until the end of the 19th century children wore white dresses until they were 6 or so. Blue and pink were introduced along with pastel shades in the middle of that century but were not assigned to gender until WW1 and even then things were confused in an article in the trade publication Earnshaw's Infants' Department in June 1918 saying that, “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 colour, is more suitable for the boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is prettier for the girl.” It wasn't until the 1940's that blue for boys and pink for girls came about and solidified.
Still though these bags are not being made for babies and don't female walkers and hikers deserve a bit more choice in this area? Maybe we just haven't looked in the right places yet though, it is possible that there are plenty of non-pink female bags out there if we just look (although if it was me looking for a bag would finding the ideal bag of the right size, weight and comfort with great pockets and everything would the fact that it was pink be enough to put me off buying it?).
Men's bags were on show in a variety of colours, they were not confined to the stereotypical baby colour of blue so why given women only pink?
Indeed if we go back to the colours being for babies pink for a girl is a recent idea - until the end of the 19th century children wore white dresses until they were 6 or so. Blue and pink were introduced along with pastel shades in the middle of that century but were not assigned to gender until WW1 and even then things were confused in an article in the trade publication Earnshaw's Infants' Department in June 1918 saying that, “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 colour, is more suitable for the boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is prettier for the girl.” It wasn't until the 1940's that blue for boys and pink for girls came about and solidified.
Still though these bags are not being made for babies and don't female walkers and hikers deserve a bit more choice in this area? Maybe we just haven't looked in the right places yet though, it is possible that there are plenty of non-pink female bags out there if we just look (although if it was me looking for a bag would finding the ideal bag of the right size, weight and comfort with great pockets and everything would the fact that it was pink be enough to put me off buying it?).
Comments
Post a Comment