女孩穿粉色国产 探花，男孩穿蓝色，不是很常见么？但这两种神志为何成了划分性别的常用色，这个问题倒是值得筹议。
By Jeanne Maglaty
艾施倩 选注
Little Franklin Delano Roosevelt sits primly on a stool， his white skirt spread smoothly over his lap， his hands clasping a hat trimmed with a marabou feather.[1] Shoulder-length hair and patent leather party shoes complete the ensemble.[2]
We find the look unsettling today， yet social convention of 1884， when FDR was photographed at age 2 1/2， dictated that boys wore dresses until age 6 or 7， also the time of their first haircut.[3] Franklin’s outfit was considered gender-neutral.[4]
But nowadays people just have to know the sex of a baby or young child at first glance. Thus we see， for example， a pink headband encircling the bald head of an infant girl.[5]
Why have young children’s clothing styles changed so dramatically[6]? How did we end up with two “teams”—boys in blue and girls in pink?
It’s really a story of what happened to neutral clothing. For centuries children wore dainty[7] white dresses up to age 6. What was once a matter of practicality—you dress your baby in white dresses and diapers; white cotton can be bleached.[8]
The march toward gender-specific clothes was neither linear nor rapid.[9] Pink and blue arrived， along with other pastels， as colors for babies in the mid-19th century， yet the two colors were not promoted as gender signifiers until just before World War I—and even then， it took time for popular culture to sort things out.[10]
For example， a Ladies’ Home Journal article in June 1918 said， “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 color， is more suitable for the boy， while blue， which is more delicate and dainty， is prettier for the girl.”[11] Other sources said blue was flattering for blonds， pink for brunettes;[12] or blue was for blue-eyed babies， pink for brown-eyed babies.
In 1927， Time magazine printed a chart showing sex-appropriate[13] colors for girls and boys according to leading US stores. In Boston， Filene’s[14] told parents to dress boys in pink. So did Best & Co. in New York City， Halle’s in Cleveland and Marshall Field in Chicago.
91麻豆Today’s color dictate wasn’t established until the 1940s， as a result of Americans’ preferences as interpreted by manufacturers and retailers.[15] It could have gone the other way.
So the baby boomers[16] were raised in gender-specific clothing. Boys dressed like their fathers， girls like their mothers. Girls had to wear dresses to school， though unadorned styles and tomboy play clothes were acceptable.[17]
When the women’s liberation movement arrived in the mid-1960s国产 探花， with its anti-feminine， anti-fashion message， the unisex look became the rage—but completely reversed from the time of young Franklin Roosevelt.[18] Now young girls were dressing in masculine—or at least unfeminine—styles， devoid of[19] gender hints.
One of the ways [feminists] thought that girls were kind of lured into subservient roles as women were through clothing.[20] If we dress our girls more like boys and less like frilly[21] little girls， they are going to have more options and feel freer to be active.
Gender-neutral clothing remained popular until about 1985. All of a sudden it wasn’t just a blue overall; it was a blue overall with a teddy bear holding a football. Disposable diapers[22] were manufactured in pink and blue.
Another important factor has been the rise of consumerism[23] among children in recent decades. According to child development experts， children are just becoming conscious of their gender between ages 3 and 4， and they do not realize it’s permanent until age 6 or 7.[24] At the same time， however， they are the subjects of sophisticated and pervasive advertising that tends to reinforce social conventions.[25] So they think， for example， that what makes someone female is having long hair and a dress.
While the fashion world may have divided children into pink and blue， but in the world of real individuals， not all is black and white[26].
Vocabulary
1. 小富兰克林法例地坐在凳子上，白色的裙子平整地盖在膝上，两支小手持着一顶帽子，帽子边沿镶着秃鹳的羽毛。Franklin Delano Roosevelt: 富兰克林•德拉诺•罗斯福（1882—1945），好意思国第32任总统 [1933—1945]，就任总统后践诺“新政”，二战时对诞生反法斯西同盟作出紧要孝顺。
2. patent leather: 漆皮；party shoes: 饮宴鞋，常常为高跟鞋；ensemble: 全体成果，也指全套配合攀附的女装。
3. unsettling: 令东谈主不安的；social convention: 社会习俗；dictate: 章程，号召，也用作名词；dress: 连衣裙，套裙。
4. outfit:（尤指在突出款式穿的）全套服装；gender-neutral: 中性的。
5. headband: 束发带；encircle: 围绕，环绕；infant: 婴儿（期）的。
6. dramatically: 戏剧化地，剧烈地。
7. dainty: 工整的，细密的。
8. practicality: 实用性；diaper: 尿布；bleach: 漂白。
9. the march: 表露，变成；gender-specific: 针对某一性别的；linear: 贯穿的。
10. pastel: 轻柔的浅色调；promote: 推论；gender signifier: 性别记号物；sort out: 弄了了。
11. decided: 刚烈的，坚决的；delicate: 细腻的，文明的。
12. flattering: 悦东谈主的，此处指“妥贴与……搭配”；blond: 白肤金发碧眼的东谈主（男的一般称为blond，女的一般称为blonde）；brunette: 具黑（或深褐）色头发和浅玄色皮肤的女子，此类男人称为brunet。
13. sex-appropriate: 妥贴某种性别的。
14. Filene’s: 位于波士顿的老牌百货商店，于2005年倒闭。下文的Best & Co.为儿童衣饰商店，Halle’s和Marshall Field为百货商店。
15. preference: 爱好或偏疼的事物；interpret: 阐释；manufacturer: 制造商，制造厂；retailer: 零卖商。
16. baby boomer: 生养岑岭期出身的一代东谈主（之一员），生养岑岭期是指二战后1947至1961年间出身的一代好意思国东谈主。
17. unadorned: 未经庇荫的，朴素的；tomboy play clothes:“假小子”式的苟简装。
18. anti-feminine: 反女性特征的，feminine（具有女性特征的）的反义词为masculine（具有男性特征的）；unisex: 不分男女的；the rage: 前卫，风靡一时的事物；reversed: 反向的，相背的。
19. devoid of: 毫无的，莫得的。
20. feminist: 女权主义者；lure: 教唆，劝诱；subservient: 恭顺的，柔声下气的。
21. frilly: （衣物等）饰有褶边的。
22. disposable diaper: 纸尿裤。
23. consumerism: 花费主义。
24. conscious: 意志到的；permanent: 常在的。
25. 然则与此同期，儿童亦然处心积虑、无处不在的告白的主义对象，这些告白也在强化社会风俗。
26. black and white: 爱憎分明。
（着手：英语学习杂志）国产 探花