Pleasure Notes

I was at a gorgeous and great birthday party last night, for a dear friend. It was a very adult soiree, and by adult I mean sophisticated – smart people having interesting conversations while eating gourmet food on breakable dishware and drinking fine wine from real glasses. While looking across the sea of grown-up faces, however, I was struck by the prevalence of a phenomenon that has followed us all from the preschool playground. Girls talk to girls; Boys talk to boys.

Now, to be fair, this gender division was not a constant throughout the evening. The party-goers were a very friendly group of people who genuinely liked each other, so of course there was much mingling. But it cannot be denied that frequently the handfuls of individuals in huddles here or there, discussing this week’s political or sports or pop culture events, were made up of only women or only men.

It got me thinking about the subtle and not so subtle messages we get throughout our lives about the differences between the genders. How is it possible, in 2009, when we have just watched a huge chunk of the barrier between Black and White fall away, that there is still a line between Pink and Blue?

Pink and Blue

Anyone who has ever been in a relationship can confirm that the differences between the sexes are not imagined. But are these differences nurtured in us or are they simply in our nature? Should these differences be celebrated and encouraged or dismissed and denied? Are they good, bad, or irrelevant? And who decided that these differences could be boiled down to a preference for pink or blue? It is a relatively new paradigm. Prior to the 20^th century, conventional wisdom associated pink, as a diluted form of red, with masculinity.

Perhaps my inquiry stems for a personal dislike for the color my gender has been arbitrarily assigned. I am a redhead, you see. And despite John Hughes’ and Molly Ringwald’s attempts to pull one over on the world by postulating that redheads are Pretty In Pink, it is simply not true. So these questions swirl around my head. I have no answers, of course. I’m just asking. But I’m not the only one.

Celine and Her Pink Things

I stumbled across an awesome photographer, JeongMee Yoon, who is exploring the gender-specific color distinctions in an engaging, amusing, and thought-provoking way. Yoon takes portraits of young girls and boys with their respective pink and blue toys.

Ethan and His Blue Things

These photographs reveal not only how very real the phenomenon is, but also hint at how much our consumer-driven economy depends upon this division.

Cotton Candy

So, tell me, what is your favorite color? Will you raise your children color blind? And which cotton candy do you like better – Pink or Blue?