Jeongmee Yoon's Pink and Blue Project

Posted by Alex in Arts & Crafts, Baby & Kids, Pictures on February 4, 2008 at 5:00 pm



Yerim and her things (2005)


Ethan and His Blue Things (2006)

When Korean artist Jeongmee Yoon’s daughter would only wear pink clothes and play with pink toys, she was inspired to turn this monochromatic phenomenon into art. In her "Pink and Blue Project," Jeongmee found that it’s not unusual for girls to have predominantly pink (and boys blue) items:

"The Pink and Blue Project" was at first motivated by my daughter. At five years old, she loves pink so much that she wants to wear only pink clothes and use only pink toys or objects.

I found that she is not unusual and most other little girls in the U.S. and South Korea love pink clothing, accessories and toys. This phenomenon seems widespread among various ethnic groups regardless of their cultural background. It could be the result of an influence of customs or the power of pervasive commercial advertisements for merchandise such as Barbie and Hello Kitty.

While producing the "pink" images, I also became aware that many boys have a lot of blue possessions and started photographing them as well. Through advertising, consumers are directed to buy blue items, symbolizing strength and masculinity, for boys; and pink items, symbolizing sweetness and femininity, for girls. (source)

Link [warning: my antivirus found a suspicious object when loading the page. Use Firefox with antivirus, OK?]- via designboom, thanks Adam Fuhrer!


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COMMENT

15 comments to "Jeongmee Yoon's Pink and Blue Project"

  1. Sid Morrison
    February 4th, 2008 at 5:22 pm

    The interesting thing is that (apparently) these color-based stereotype are really fairly modern. I've read that if you go back prior to a hundred years or so ago (I'll need to do some digging for the references...), you'll find that little girls' clothes & rooms tended to be blue and little boys' were more likely pink. It had something to do with pink being a red variant and red = heat = fire in the kid's demeanor, &c. Conversely, blue was cool and sedate and calm, just like little princess.

    Anybody have a reference to back this up? It's been some time since I last stumbled across it...

  2. VonSkippy
    February 4th, 2008 at 5:52 pm

    Remember - Google is your friend:

    http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=238733

  3. donna
    February 4th, 2008 at 6:15 pm

    Note to parents:

    You don't actually have to indulge your children's obsessions.

    Really.

  4. ted
    February 4th, 2008 at 7:36 pm

    Nice to see an example of over-the-top materialism that isn't North American, for a change.

  5. NeuroGirl
    February 4th, 2008 at 10:24 pm

    Nice to see parents fighting gender stereotypes... I can't find a single educational toy in either of those pictures

  6. Jane
    February 4th, 2008 at 10:44 pm

    NeuroGirl, as much as the above is rather disgusting, I suspect the lack of educational toys is due to the fact that many of them are not predominately pink or blue, and therefore would not match the rest of the objects in the room.

    I still have many of my mostly gender-neutral/educational (and perhaps stereotypically male, because they're rather geeky/scientific) toys, and I often go shopping for toys for friends' kids, and they are always everything but pink or blue.

  7. su.wei
    February 4th, 2008 at 11:14 pm

    interesting. most articles ive read on the subject say that it's a social thing...

  8. NeuroGirl
    February 4th, 2008 at 11:37 pm

    What we surround children with has a huge affect on their adult interests. Surrounding your children in gender-specific materialism strikes me as a potentially handicapping behavior.

    My favorite childhood "toy" was Elle - a full-size skeletal model that I still have. It's been creeping my friends out since I was six.

  9. Sid Morrison
    February 5th, 2008 at 9:02 am

    Von Skippy is da man. Thank you!

  10. king20878
    February 5th, 2008 at 1:18 pm

    Yes it does have an "effect" on them, but for Pete's sake, if the kid needs sneakers and pink sneakers will make them happy, buy the pink sneakers. You can lecture them on gender equality and stereotypes when they are old enough to understand. They can wear pink, Hello Kitty earmuffs and still grow up to be president.

  11. Skipweasel
    February 5th, 2008 at 4:01 pm

    The good news is they do grow out of it. Unless they're Barbara Cartland, of course, for whom the phrase "Cruelty without Beauty" was coined.

  12. Denita TwoDragons
    February 5th, 2008 at 6:32 pm

    I hated pink as a baby, and I still don't care much for it. Most of my stuff ran to either blue or green, and still does. And while I played with dolls, well...I also tended to "correct" their lack of appropriate anatomy.

    In proper proportion.

    With full 3-D shading.

    And matching, um, carpet.

    (Reading Grey's Anatomy and medical textbooks at age 6 will do that to ya... :-) )

    --TwoDragons

  13. marieissah
    February 5th, 2008 at 11:03 pm

    Oh my!

  14. king20878
    February 6th, 2008 at 2:13 am

    TwoDragons, that's fantastic. :)
    I'm curious, Modeling clay? Bubblegum? Sillyputty?

  15. Ken
    February 27th, 2008 at 7:44 am

    I don't think it's really cross-cultural. I wonder if cultures that aren't exposed to a dominant American culture have similar selections.


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