mercoledì 4 giugno 2008

The Pink Gender

Yesterday while I was with the 2 and half years old little girl (I'm also a nanny, sometimes) she proudly showed me her new pair of pink pants. She was wearing, as per usual, pink from head to toe. I always thought little girls look cute in pink but when a little one tells you she wants pink hair too "cause pink is beautiful and I am beautiful" the whole thing become kind of freaky...

I never wore too much pink when I was a child (but I probably would to and this should justify the fact now I have a pink blog called "the cupcake diary"!!!), but at today this color is everywhere and the girls grows up with the scary classic association pink = feminine more than ever.

Today while web surfing, I stumbled upon the work of JeongMee Yoon , a South Korean artist who in 2005 began a photographic series called The Pink Project. At the beginning, she noticed how much her 5 years old daughter loved the color pink and all her "pink possessions" and how she could choose a toy or a dress only beacause of this color, refusing everything else. Then, asking other parents she met here and there, regardless etnich groups and cultures, she found there were not much differences and her daughter's case was not unusual. The pink trend was epidemic.
She began to take pictures of these little girls and all their beloved pink items.






The photos perfectly show the unconscious social craziness and the compulsion behind the enormous amount of pink stuff each girl owns. It's not only a sign of a globalizated taste or a convention. It's probably the power of advertising, the cultural manipulation wich divide and direct customers not only to a specific product, but to an entire lifestyle, literally starting from basements.

As JeongMee Yoon noticed:

"As girls grow older, their taste for pink changes. Until about 2nd grade, they are very obsessed with the color pink, but around 3rd or 4th grade, they do not obsess with pink as much anymore. Usually, their tastes change to purple. Later, there is another shift. However, the original association with the color-code often remains."

And I like a lot purple, berry and similar shades...

15 commenti:

Kira Aderne ha detto...

hi!

so yammy blog!
love it all here, so in love!

let´s exchange links?

a kiss for you,
see you,
Kira

Ana ha detto...

WHOA kinda creepy, all that pink.
I was more about orange when I was little.

Shelby ha detto...

Haha! When I was a little girl, I LOVED green. I always wanted green flowers, and never understood why florists didn't carry them. And once, I colored both hands with a green marker.

Sharon S ha detto...

This is cute-I'm in a house with hubby and 2 boys, so it makes a lovely change to see this!

AlicePleasance ha detto...

@ kira fashion: thanks! I added a link to you :-)

Natalie ha detto...

I think I had a color shock! :o)
Little princesses in their pink dream worlds...
Cute (...although slightly insane ;o)

What a wonderful blog!!!
Adding it to my favorites!

Natalie

floresita ha detto...

It's funny, I hated pink as a child (as did my older sister) but after both of us turned 30, we began liking it more and more. I find I gravitate towards every shade of pink now (but less towards the little-girl pink, maybe). :)

The Fancier ha detto...

I think it's kind of adorable. There is a child's book called "Pinkalicious" about a little girl who likes pink so much and will only eat pink things until she turns pink etc.... And now there is "Purpalicious".

Super Noodle Rach ha detto...

Oooohhh! They are all so cuteee! espes that lil oriental one doing the peace sign! I do love pink (but not as much as the kids), I thinks its fun and sweet! and don't those girls just look super sweet. Kinda remind me of my room like the amount of stuff they have!

Anonimo ha detto...

As a child Pink was everything!

Times of Glory ha detto...

How cute and the projects perfectly capture little girls' earliest "fashion obsession"! Love the pictures xx

Anonimo ha detto...

ive seen some of these in some mag before, but not all... how mad!

Mr.galle ha detto...

Hello, this site is nice!!
I already link to this page.
If you don't mind. Please link to my blog this URL
http://fromyokohama.blogspot.com/

Meg ha detto...

These are crazy! It just goes to show how greatly gender training is still in practice, I can't imagine living in such a candyflossed world myself, even at the age of 4 or 5!

Erika ha detto...

sweetly superfluous, yet tempting...