| Pink |
|
|
| — Common connotations — |
| girls, love, health, breast cancer awareness, fairies, Valentine's Day, homosexuality, bisexuality, spring, Easter, beauty, air, cuteness |
|
— Color coordinates — |
| Hex triplet |
#FFC0CB |
| sRGBB |
(r, g, b) |
(255, 192, 203) |
| HSV |
(h, s, v) |
(350°, 25%, 100%) |
| Source |
HTML/CSS1 |
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)
|
|
Pink is a pale red color; the use of the word for the color was first recorded in the late 17th century2, describing the flowers of pinks, flowering plants in the genus Dianthus. Pink itself is a combination of red and white. Other tints of pink may be combinations of rose and white, magenta and white, or orange and white.
Roseus is a Latin word meaning "rosy" or "pink." Lucretius used the word to describe the dawn in his epic poem On the Nature of Things (De Rerum Natura). 3 The word is also used in the binomial names of several species, such as the Rosy Starling (Sturnus roseus) and Catharanthus roseus.
In the 17th century, however, the word pink was also used to describe a greenish or yellowish color. Thomas Jenner's A Book of Drawing, Limning, Washing (1652) categorizes "Pink & blew bice" amongst the greens (p.38)4, and specifies several admixtures of greenish colors made with pink -- e.g. "Grasse-green is made of Pink and Bice, it is shadowed with Indigo and Pink ... French-green of Pink and Indico [shadowed with] Indico" (pp.38–40). In William Salmon's Polygraphice (1673), "Pink yellow" is mentioned amongst the chief yellow pigments (p.96), and the reader is instructed to mix it with either Saffron or Ceruse for "sad" or "light" shades thereof, respectively (p.98).
Pink in gender
Person in a pink sweatshirt knitting a pink scarf
- In Western culture, the practice of assigning pink to an individual gender began in the 1920s.5 From then until the 1940s, pink was considered appropriate for boys because being related to red it was the more masculine and decided color, while blue was considered appropriate for girls because it was the more delicate and dainty color, or related to the Virgin Mary.678 Since the 1940s, the societal norm apparently inverted so that pink became appropriate for girls and blue appropriate for boys, a practice that has continued into the 21st century.9
- Though the color pink has sometimes been associated with gender stereotypes, some feminists have sought to reclaim it. For example, the Swedish radical feminist party Feminist Initiative and the American activist women's group Code Pink: Women for Peace use pink as their color.
- The pink ribbon is the international symbol of breast cancer awareness. Pink was chosen partially because it is so strongly associated with femininity.10
- It has been suggested that females prefer pink because of a preference for reddish things like ripe fruits and healthy faces.1112
Pink in sexuality
- Whereas Jewish people were forced to wear a yellow star of David under Nazi rule, and Roma people were forced to wear a black triangle, men imprisoned on accusations of homosexuality or same-sex sexual activity were forced to wear a pink triangle. Nowadays, the pink triangle is often worn with pride.13
- A Dutch newsgroup about homosexuality is called nl.roze (roze being the Dutch word for pink), while in Britain, Pink News is a leading gay newspaper and online news service. There is a magazine called Pink for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual (LGBT) community which has different editions for various metropolitan areas.14 In France Pink TV is an LGBT cable channel.
- In business, the pink pound or pink dollar refers to the spending power of the LGBT community.15 Advertising agencies sometimes call the gay market the pink economy.
- In Japan the color cherry blossom pink is associated with a woman's vagina, and therefore, in Japan, softcore pornographic films are called pink movies.16
- In the bandana code of the gay leather subculture, wearing a pink bandana means that one is into the fetish of playing with dildos. Wearing a dark pink bandana means that one is into tit torture.1718
Pink in nature
Pink in human culture
Academic dress
- In the French academic dress system, the five traditional fields of study (Arts, Science, Medicine, Law and Divinity) are each symbolized by a distinctive color, which appears in the academic dress of the people who graduated in this field. Redcurrant, an extremely red shade of pink, is the distinctive color for Medicine (and other health-related fields)[1].
Alcoholic beverages
Art
- In 1993, artist Gioia Fonda created a conceptual piece in the form of a week long holiday called pink week. The intention of pink week is to liberate the color pink from all dogma and simply celebrate the color pink as a color. 21
- Bubblegum Pink is an installation by the artist duo Bigert & Bergstrom which "confronted [the viewer] with three different mental climates" 22 involving large amounts of pink. This mirrors the use of the color in American prisons to calm aggressive prisoners. It features a pink cell and a carpet worn by repetitive pacing. 23
- Christo and Jeanne-Claude's Surrounded Islands wrapped wooded islands in Miami's Biscayne Bay with 6,500,000 square feet (604,000 m2) of bright pink fabric. 24 Thomas von Taschitzki has said that "the monochrome pink wrappings"..."form a counterpoint to the small green wooded islands." 25
- Many of Franz West's aluminium sculptures were often painted a bright pink, for example Sexualitatssymbol (Symbol of Sexuality). West has said that the pink was intended as an "outcry to nature". 26.
Calendars
- In Thailand, pink is associated with Tuesday on the Thai solar calendar. Anyone may wear pink on Tuesdays, and anyone born on a Tuesday may adopt pink as their color.
Clothing
Cosmetics
- Mary Kay in 1968, Mary Kay Ash, purchased the first Pink Cadillac, which eventually became the trademark of her company.
Economics
Education
Employment
Film
- Pretty In Pink has the color named in the title
- The Pink Panther is a popular cartoon character.
- Pink Cadillac was a 1989 movie starring Clint Eastwood.
- Pink Ladies was the name of Betty Rizzo's (Stockard Channing) gang in the film, Grease (film).
- In Japan, blue films were categorized as Pink films (ピンク映画, Pinku Eiga?)29. Such description is not used recently since "Adult Videos (アダルトビデオ, Adaruto Bideo?) became popular.
- In the movie adaptation of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Dolores Jane Umbridge wears only pink and has a pink office.
Finance
- Since 1893 the London Financial Times newspaper has used a distinctive salmon pink color for its newsprint, mainly as a way to distinguish itself from competitors. In other countries, the salmon press identifies economic newspapers or economics sections in "white" newspapers.
Food
- In Japanese language, pink has been described as Momoiro (桃色, Momo-Iro?), which means "peach color", but Pink (ピンク, Pinku?) is more popular recently.
Gender
- The color pink is often used to represent women or young girls. (See discussion above in section on Pink in gender and sexuality.).
Gun Rights
Health
Literature
Music
Panelology
Parapsychology
- It has been asserted that people with pink auras are those who strongly desire romantic relationships.34
Performance Art
Politics
- Pink, being a 'watered-down' red, is sometimes used in a derogatory way to describe a person with mild communist or socialist beliefs (see Pinko).
- In maps of political parties in Portugal, pink is used to represent the Socialist Party.
Religion
- In Catholicism, pink (called rose by the Catholic Church) symbolizes joy and happiness. It is used for the Third Sunday of Advent and the Fourth Sunday of Lent to mark the halfway point in these seasons of penance. However, in some Protestant denominations, the pink candle is sometimes lit on the Fourth Sunday of Advent, the Sunday of Lovecitation needed.
- Pink is the color most associated with Indian spiritual leader Meher Baba, who often wore pink coats to please his closest female follower, Mehera Irani, and today pink remains an important color, symbolizing love, to Baba's followers.
- The Invisible Pink Unicorn is the goddess of a parody religion, a rhetorical tool intended to satirize the contradictory properties often attributed to deities.
Sonics
- Pink noise (
sample (help·info)), also known as 1/f noise, is a signal or process with a frequency spectrum such that the power spectral density is proportional to the reciprocal of the frequency.
Sports
Toys
- Mattel's Barbie line often displays pink prominently on packaging and other goods.
Transportation planning
See also
References
- ^ W3C TR CSS3 Color Module, HTML4 color keywords
- ^ “pink, n.⁵ and adj.²”, Oxford English Dictionary Online
- ^ CTCWeb Glossary: R (ratis to ruta)
- ^ Jenner, Thomas (1652). A Book of Drawing, Limning, Washing. London: M. Simmons. pp. 38. http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupid?key=olbp20532.
- ^ Zucker, Kenneth J. and Bradley, Susan J. (1995). Gender Identity Disorder and Psychosexual Problems in Children and Adolescents. Guilford Press. pp. 203. ISBN 0898622662. http://books.google.com/books?id=atfTHGjjVeIC&pg=PA203&vq=pink+or+blue&sig=9wAt47m2KdAGR6QQ7BOwIkMa_-E.
- ^ Merkin, Daphne. "Gender Trouble", The New York Times Style Magazine, 12 March 2006, retrieved 10 December 2007.
- ^ Orenstein, Peggy. "What's Wrong With Cinderella?", The New York Times Magazine, 24 December 2006, retrieved 10 December 2007. Orenstein writes: "When colors were first introduced to the nursery in the early part of the 20th century, pink was considered the more masculine hue, a pastel version of red. Blue, with its intimations of the Virgin Mary, constancy and faithfulness, was thought to be dainty. Why or when that switched is not clear, but as late as the 1930s a significant percentage of adults in one national survey held to that split."
- ^ Jude Stewart (2008). "Pink is for Boys: cultural history of the color pink". Step Inside Design Magazine. http://www.stepinsidedesign.com/STEPMagazine/Article/28832.
- ^ SpringerLink - Journal Article
- ^ Pink Ribbon for Breast Cancer Awareness:
- ^ http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070820/sc_nm/colour_gender_dc
- ^ Women may be hardwired to prefer pink - being-human - 20 August 2007 - New Scientist
- ^ The Pink Triangle: The Nazi War Against Homosexuals (1986) by Richard Plant (New Republic Books). ISBN 0-8050-0600-1.
- ^ Website of Pink magazine:
- ^ Opportunities in the Pink Economy of the United Kingdom:
- ^ Weisser, Thomas; Yuko Mihara Weisser (1998). Japanese Cinema Encyclopedia: The Sex Films. Miami: Vital Books : Asian Cult Cinema Publications. pp. p.20. ISBN 1-889288-52-7.
- ^ Card showing list of bandana colors and their meanings, available at Image Leather, 2199 Market St., San Francisco, CA 94114
- ^ Gay City USA Hanky Code:
- ^ Medline Encyclopedia: Delirium Tremens
- ^ Recipe for Pink gin
- ^ Pink Week--when Pink means Pink:
- ^ Nemitz, Barbara. Pink The Exposed Color in Contemporary Art and Culture. Hatje Cantz. pp. 88.
- ^ Nemitz, Barbara. Pink The Exposed Color in Contemporary Art and Culture. Hatje Cantz. pp. 88.
- ^ Goodman, Walter (1987-10-16). "Film: Christo, in 'Islands'". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DEEDD133EF935A25753C1A961948260. Retrieved 2007-10-05.
- ^ Nemitz, Barbara. Pink The Exposed Color in Contemporary Art and Culture. Hatje Cantz. pp. 68.
- ^ Nemitz, Barbara. Pink The Exposed Color in Contemporary Art and Culture. Hatje Cantz. pp. 69.
- ^ Victoria's Secret Pink:
- ^ Principal Finds Test Scores Hair-Razing:
- ^ http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/ff20081204r1.html
- ^ Pink Pistols website:
- ^ As he moves out of the darkness, a pink ribbon blows down next to him and he sees that Faith is part of the “communion” that is taking place in the woods.
- ^ Official site of singer Pink:
- ^ Supergirl (Volume 2) #79
- ^ Oslie, Pamalie Life Colors: What the Colors in Your Aura Reveal Novato, California:2000--New World Library Page 342
- ^ Gritty in Pink by Ashley Harrell SF Weekly Wednesday, 28 January 2009:
- ^ Code Pink: Women for Peace on the site of Global Exchange. Accessed 31 January 2007.
- ^ City of Lund, Sweden stages fake Gay Nazi parade with pink banners on 17 August 2005:
- ^ Controversy regarding pink University of Iowa locker room:
External links
