THE COLOR PINK
A Cultural Serving
THE COLOR PINK
With the release of Greta Gerwig’s hit film Barbie, the pink that inflected the childhood of anyone who ever played with Mattel’s trademark dolls is back in full force, as eager cinema-goers dress in hot pink, magenta, orchid and other shades for a fun night out with friends. Subverting the Barbie mythos with the feminist wit for which Gerwig is known, the film’s capitalization on nostalgia has clearly worked—it’s grossed a staggering $1.2 billion worldwide with pink dominating its explosive marketing.
Pink perdures in pop culture, politics and fashion, associated foremost with femininity and the finer things in life. Let us take you through the roots and resurgence of pink.
The exact origins of pink are unknown, but it was recognized as a concept in Homer’s The Odyssey: “Then, when the child of morning, rosy-fingered dawn appeared. . .” Occurring in nature in flowers like roses and carnations, the word ‘pink’ itself initially appeared as a noun for the dianthus flower in the 1600s.
In the 18th century, the European aristocracy favored pastels which set them apart from the masses with pink as a favorite. Madame de Pompadour, the mistress of Louis XV and a tastemaker in her own right, was a huge pink aficionado, and the high-end porcelain company Sèvres—whose vintage pieces are available at auction houses like Sotheby’s for the equivalent price of an expensive liberal arts college degree— named an in-house shade of pink in her honor.
Pink was not always perceived as a feminine shade, seen as more of a boy’s color in the 1920s in the US. In Japan, too, pink represented the pain and melancholy following the death of a young samurai, and Japanese cherry blossoms (sakura) likewise symbolize the regeneration of spring after the dying season of winter.
The codification of pink as a feminine color finds its roots in the postwar period of the 1950s, as major advertisers displayed women in pink clothes, nail-polish, accessories and more. In 1959, Ruth Handler invented Barbie, a high-fashion doll attired in chic black and white. It wasn’t until the 1970s that Mattel injected pink in its marketing, precipitating the pink-mania seen today in the streets, at the movies, and on social media in the 21st century.
Rose-tinted nostalgia for the aughts
Today, Mattel has copyrighted Pantone 219 C, a deep, near magenta-like shade of pink. The color is similar to Elsa Schiaparelli’s shocking pink, which was inspired by the fashion designer’s interest in the vivid colors used for saris in India.
The resurgence of the Y2K trend of pink—what L’Officiel calls “bright, bold, bubblegum colors, anything that could work on a Barbie or Bratz doll—invokes the onscreen fashion of rom-com heroines (and villains) like Elle Woods and Regina George, or the retail mania of Juicy Couture tracksuits, Baby Phat’s girly miniskirts and furry coords, Limited Too’s preteen fashion or the Victoria’s Secret sweatpants with ‘PINK’ literally emblazoned on the back. And before the rose-gold iPhone case was popular amongst millennials, Motorola’s Razr sleek light pink flip phone was the OG.
In contrast, the cooler millennial pink, varying from salmon-pink to rose quartz, appeared ubiquitously in the 2010s, and will probably make a comeback once the public tires of nostalgia. A more relaxed color capturing the ambiguity of femininity, millennial pink frequently appears in interior design, web design, and the beauty industry, such as in the marketing of love-yourself makeup brand Glossier, and in products like Rihanna’s bestselling body luminizer which emits a dewy, rose-nude shimmer on the skin of whoever wears it.
Political undertones
Even with its dominance of fashion and beauty, pink (like all colors) bears political weight. In 2017, pink pussy-hats predominated with the Women’s March as feminists reclaimed the color against Trump’s misogyny.
But pink has also been used for more sinister reasons. In the Holocaust, a pink triangle marked members of the LGBT community; queer activists later reclaimed the symbol in defiance.
Baker-Miller pink, or drunk-tank pink, was developed in an experiment in a Seattle prison in the late 1970s with the aim of pacifying prisoners completely; scientists debate its effect on the feelings and behaviors of inmates. In artist Kapwani Kiwanga’s exhibition at Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg in Germany, an installation employs this blazing shade of pink to interrogate how color is used to control and subdue.
Written by Iman Sultan
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