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Koreans have curious attitudes to pink.
On the one hand, it is by no means considered feminine on adults, nor has it ever been historically. Indeed, far from rejecting it, these days many young men positively embrace pink as a sign of rebellion against the gruff, dull rural roots of their parents. As The Joshing Gnome puts it:
Many young guys who grew up in this world find that it’s just not them. What recourse do they have but to declare loudly and pinkly to the world ‘I am not what my parents are.’ They’re showing people they’re young, they’re modern, they’re not dissolute drunken bums (and how would one know if not for their outfits?) and they’re urbane. If my two choices of apparel are white pants, a pink shirt, and ‘wax’ in my hair or slippers, track pants, a motorcycle and a case of the soju rosies, then I have to say I would be right there with these preening young men foppin’ it up.
And lest that sound like exaggeration, bear in mind that most Koreans lived in villages until the late-1970s. Hence I’ve also made a similar argument for their wearing of (usually pink or pastel) “couple clothes” myself, such a visible sign of affection possibly being a stark rejection of the model of their own parents’ often arranged marriages.
But I haven’t been married for so long though, that I don’t realize that it could just as easily be because men will simply do anything to get laid.
And if that requires caving in to their partners’ wishes to both look cute together and show off their status as a couple, then why not? After all, cuteness is already a strong cultural prerogative in Korea, much like the equivalent in many Western countries is to be ‘Xtreme’ and too cool for school.
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But for every 5 male university students I see wearing pink clothes, I might see 1 or 2 men in their 30s, 40s or even older also doing so. How then, could pink ever be considered intrinsically cute here?
Probably because, on the other hand, Koreans do maintain a pink/blue divide for children. And while this is by no means a phenomenon confined to Korea of course, that they do so despite all the above is a telling demonstration of the points made by Korean artist JeongMee Yoon (윤정미) through her Pink and Blue Projects like the above, which were:
…initiated by my five-year-old daughter, who loves the color pink so much that she wanted to wear only pink clothes and play with only pink toys and objects. I discovered that my daughter’s case was not unusual. In the United States, South Korea and elsewhere, most young girls love pink clothing, accessories and toys. This phenomenon is widespread among children of various ethnic groups regardless of their cultural backgrounds. Perhaps it is the influence of pervasive commercial advertisements aimed at little girls and their parents, such as the universally popular Barbie and Hello Kitty merchandise that has developed into a modern trend. Girls train subconsciously and unconsciously to wear the color pink in order to look feminine…
…Today, with the effects of advertising on consumer preferences, these color customs are a worldwide standard…The saccharine, confectionery pink objects that fill my images of little girls and their accessories reveal a pervasive and culturally manipulated expression of femininity” and a desire to be seen.
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Currently, her work is being exhibited at The Santa Barbara Museum of Art, which is hosting “the first major American showing by contemporary Korean artists living in Korea”: see the Los Angeles Times for more details (via KoreAm). Also, you can see her own website for more examples (and a fuller explanation) of her work.
But does the pink/blue divide largely come from overseas, as Yoon implies? And if so, how and why exactly?
Unfortunately, I don’t personally know enough about Korean fashion history to answer. My gut instinct though, is to reject the notion of cultural imperialism: in my post Giving the Consumer What She Wants? for instance, I demonstrate that far from the plucky Korean magazine industry being at the mercy of evil multinational companies, in fact Korean consumers were very active and willing agents in its Westernization.
But on the other hand, this wouldn’t be the first time Koreans have wholeheartedly – and rather unthinkingly – adopted some aspect of Western culture despite local tradition. Male circumcision for instance, was virtually unknown in Korea before the Korean War, but now it probably has the highest rate of it in the non-Muslim and non-Jewish world. And yet despite being world leaders, both doctors and the general public display a profound ignorance of the practice, most simply associating circumcision with industrialization and improved living standards.
What do you think is responsible?
Meanwhile, please see my post Sex and the Red Blooded Woman for the sake of comparison, in which I discuss how the general redness of most cosmetics at least do have definite biological bases, unlike our clearly heavily socialized ones for clothing!
I’d offer up some ideas, but I’m still trying to figure out the American male embracing of pink clothing during the 1980s.
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Don’t hold me to it, but I think I read about that a little as I was preparing this post. If I can find anything (again), I’ll pass it on.
Meanwhile, you reminded me of a question I forgot to ask in the post: I’ve only been to a grand total of 4 trips to Western countries since I came to Korea back in 2000, so I’m a bit out of touch with Western fashions. How is pink on men regarded there these days?
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I think it depends on where you live. I live in California, and a friend who’d just moved here from another state was openly laughed at when he speculated a co-worker might be gay because the co-worker had worn a pink polo shirt. I don’t know if it’s the influence of South Asian culture, the influence of East Asian culture, the influence of gay culture, less gender role enforcement in general, or what, but generally speaking, wearing purple/orange/pink/etc. shirts is normal here. No one is going to look twice unless you actually camp it up. But expressing shock over it will actually get you stared at.
Fine by me–people should be able to wear whatever color they want. (And it does matter. A young male relative [distant] of mine was actually punished by his parents as a child for claiming that his favorite color was pink. Thinly veiled homophobia and/or misogyny. :/)
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With the resurgence of “vintage 90’s” color, in general, is very in for both guys and girls, including pink. I would also say Kayne West embracing pink has also neutralized it for men. Especially men in their 20’s/ early 30’s
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Thanks. I first suspected I may be out of touch back in 2007 actually, when I was adamant that for their sake, my male students should not take their pink clothes with them when they went on their planned trips overseas. One of them who’d just gotten back from LA rightfully called me out and said that he’d seen plenty while he was there…(but I didn’t see any in 2008 in New Zealand though).
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Easy: the 1980s (particularly the early 80s) were a bad, bad time. Look at the music, the hairstyles, the TV shows and films.
I blame the cesspool of American politics.
Korea’s embrace of pink may well be, like so many cultural things here, linked to the current embrace of pink for men in the West now, but it likely functions, culturally, in a way comparable to some earlier cultural shift in modern societies.
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Sorry, but like what “earlier cultural shift in modern societies”? Not necessarily disagreeing of course, but I’m not really sure what you mean.
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That article on circumcision was incredible. I’d always been told that Koreans had always circumcised – I just assumed it was cultural. I can’t believe that so many Korean doctors could be so ignorant of the related facts. That said, I’m not surprised at all that the majority of the general population is ignorant of such medical knowledge. Whenever I’ve got into a discussion about circumcision with Koreans (let’s be honest – it’s not often!) I would say that probably all of them have offered up a simple “it’s cleaner” or “it’s healthier” as a reason. It just goes to show what lengths Korea will go to in order to be perceived as “advanced”.
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To be frank I didn’t read either article much, already having read something pretty similar about 5 years ago (hell, maybe the same ones for all I know: they’re a little old!). I do recall personally being amazed though, at how many Korean parents didn’t devote any thought to the circumcision at all, one of if not the major reason they had it done to their sons being “everyone else was getting it done to their sons, so I thought mine should get it done too/I didn’t want him to stand out”.
Full disclosure: I’m adamantly against circumcision, male or female.
Update: Have slightly edited that part of the post since Seamus wrote.
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I found the bit where they interviewed Korean doctors to be the most informative/telling/surprising/non-surprising. Asked to guess what percentage of men were circumcised in Scandinavian countries they guessed at about 50% if I recall correctly, and also assumed Japan had similar rates as South Korea, whereas China and North Korea were believed to have very low rates.
It’s also a shame that it’s become so prevalent that all males who aren’t circumcised, young or old, feel pressured or ostracised as a result. And that nobody seems to know that it’s an entirely unnecessary procedure in almost all cases.
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I would be shocked if the pink/blue thing were not an import. Like The Straight Dope, I am skeptical of its having any biological origins due to the recentness of its invention in “the West,” but anyway, there’s a pretty good overview of it here, with references: http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2831/was-pink-originally-the-color-for-boys-and-blue-for-girls
(The color for Chinese babies period used to be shades of red, if I recall correctly. I don’t know if they’ve moved away from that.)
Don’t get me started on the unnecessary gendering of every darned thing for small kids in the US. :| Buying things for friends’ babies is an exercise in frustration. (Why are giraffes masculine? Why are there bibs for infants that say “Lipstick” on them? Why is a cooking kit branded with the “Ace of Cakes” star–a MAN–named Girl Gourmet? Why do you have to choose a gender instead of a color you LIKE when picking out so many infant items? AAAAAUGH)
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I agree that it’s probably not biological. But I didn’t always think so, and to play devil’s advocate the first part of the following article does put the onus on the nurture rather than nature advocates to provide a non-biological explanation:
Sex, shopping and thinking pink
Aug 23rd 2007
From The Economist print edition
Long-term readers may recognize it: I first posted it back in November 2007, in a post I’ve since deleted, and was tempted to put it up again here but unfortunately am much more respectful of copyright than I was back then. Now as opposed to then, the harking back to men=hunters women=gatherers (yet again) makes me cringe (mainly because of this), but I’m still unable to see how the result of the experiment in the market could be the result of socialization.
While I’m here, a couple of the more informative comments to that post:
amy said, on April 19, 2009 at 11:17 am
And:
Kay said, on January 12, 2010 at 10:56 pm
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I’d like to see color-patch flashing experiment done with only women from a society that hadn’t pushed pink at them from nearly the moment they’d opened their eyes. :)
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Oh, sure: unlike the authors, I didn’t see how the second experiment proved a biological basis to the color preference at all, albeit presuming that pink and red for girls is just a big a thing in China as it is elsewhere.
The results of the first experiment remain a bit more difficult to chalk up to socialization though.
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