Yep, that'd be pink and blue, a distinction that's become such a tradition for dressing up those little ones that it's often tough to find anything but the two basic hues.

沒錯，就是粉紅色和藍色，我們已經習慣了這樣的區別傳統，除了這兩種基本色調，往往很難找到其他顏色來給那些小傢伙穿上。

But it wasn't always that way, and if you do some digging into the history of how we identify our children, you'll find that there's a lot that went into making the blue-pink dynamic such a mainstay of kids' fashions.

但不是一直以來都這樣的，如果你去挖掘一下過去我們是如何分辨孩子性別的，你就會發現讓藍色和粉色成為兒童時裝主流的背後有很多故事。

Plain white tease

純白的真相

Long before society latched onto these two colors, it was gender-neutral colors that gained favor with American families.

在社會習慣這兩個顏色之前，就有性別中立的顏色出現並獲得了美國家庭的青睞了。

For practical reasons, it was just easier for families to bleach soiled clothing items if they were simply made with all-white fabrics, 'cause, you know, stuff happens.

出於實用，對家庭來說，用純白布料所做成的衣服弄髒後更容易漂白，因為你知道，「事情」發生了。

- She's making poop face. - What do you mean, "She's making a poop face"?

-「她在擺大便臉。」 - 你說她「擺大便臉」是什麼意思？

Oh, my God, she's gonna poop in the tub; hurry up, hurry up, she's gonna poop on me.

哦，天吶，她要在浴缸里大便了；快點，快點，她要在我身上大便了。

- Okay... - No, no, no, no, no; come on, that's my hat.

不…… -不不不，拜託不要，那是我的帽子。

So, white was really the preferred color for young kids to wear until they reached the age of six or seven and started wearing more sophisticated and colorful threads like the adults in their lives.

所以，白色在當時是小孩子們穿衣的首選顏色，直到他們六、七歲時，才開始像成年人一樣穿上更複雜多彩的衣服。

Vice versa

反之亦然

According to fashion historians, the idea of associating pastel colors with children occurred around the middle of the 19th century, and it would take another 7 decades before specific colors were assigned to each gender.

根據時尚歷史學家的說法，將糖果色與兒童聯繫起來的想法大約發生在19世紀中葉，而又過了七十年後，才有了現在將特定的顏色分別分給不同性別的情況。

But even then, things were still quite different as some publications deemed pink the ideal color for boys since it was a stronger, bolder color while blue was better suited for girls.

但即便如此，情況仍有很大不同，因為在一些刊物上認為粉紅色更加強烈大膽，是男孩的理想色，而藍色則更適合女孩。

While some forward-thinkers from the era also suggested perhaps each baby should be dressed according to his or her own features, like, say, eye color, the common gender association of clothing colors was still beginning to take shape.

雖然那個時代的一些前瞻性思想家也建議應該根據嬰兒本身的特點來穿衣，像是眼睛的顏色，但顏色與性別間的連結仍開始成形。

The first pink-blue divide

第一個就是區別粉色與藍色。

By the 1940s and the end of World War II, the gender-specific clothing trend was firmly entrenched in the public consciousness for as simple a reason as that's what retailers were pushing.

到 1940 年代以及二戰結束時，用性別來區分服裝的趨勢已經牢牢地紮根於大眾意識中，而背後的原因很簡單，就是零售商的推廣。

Rosie the Riveter might've been wearing blue, but once her man came back from the front lines, she could trade in her oil-stained blues for the flowery pink aprons that became her kitchen uniform.

鉚釘工 Rosie 可能一直穿著藍色衣服，但當她的丈夫從前線回來時，她可以用她那沾滿油汙的藍色衣服換取粉色碎花圍裙，而這就成了她的廚房制服。

By 1947, fashion designers like Christian Dior were advertising the clothing of the postwar ideal.

到 1947 年，像 Christian Dior 這樣的時裝設計師藉由衣服來推廣戰後理想。

And for women?

那麼對女性來說呢？

There was a ton of soft, flowing, now-feminine pink.

市面上有一堆材質柔軟的、飄逸的粉色衣服讓女性著用。

From there, we came to firmly believe that pink was the color for girls, while blue was the color of snips, snails, and puppy dog tails.

從那時起，粉紅色是屬於女孩子的顏色的印象就在我們心裡根深蒂固了，而藍色則是屬於對大自然和小動物充滿好奇心的男孩子。

Breaking with tradition

打破傳統

The emergence of the women's liberation movement kick-started the social change of the 1960s, which put a temporary end to the dominance of gender-specific colors.

婦女解放運動的出現啟動了 1960 年代的社會變革，而這暫時結束了性別有指定顏色的主流。

The idea that dressing girls in pink was going to encourage kitchen conformity gained favor, and thus began the argument that there was no biological reason for girls to favor pink over blue.

讓女孩穿上粉色衣服是要鼓勵廚房內一致性的想法獲得了人們的青睞，而從那時起，女孩喜歡粉紅色多於藍色和生理原因無關的論點便出現了。

Ooh, delicious, stupid cookie; I think I'll...

哦，美味的，愚蠢的餅乾，我想我會……

'80s backtrack

80 年代的回溯

Of course, what goes up must come down.

當然，有升必有降。

A re-emergence of "blue is for boys, pink is for girls" fashion ethos for our pint-sized citizens in the '80s had a lot to do with the most powerful thing in the world: money.

在 80 年代，「藍色是男孩的，粉色是女孩的 」的時尚精神在一般百姓的再現，和世界上最強大的東西有很大關係──金錢。

Finding out the gender of babies before they were born suddenly became a medical possibility, and that meant retailers found a new way to capitalize on selling specific merchandise geared toward boys and girls.

突然，在嬰兒出生前就知道他們的性別在醫學上是有可能的，而這意味著零售商找到了一種新的方式來銷售特定的商品給男孩和女孩。

Given how many couples have more than one child and how many families have both sons and daughters, that made hand-me-downs more difficult if dressing your second-born daughter in your first-born son's clothes is going against social norms.

鑑於當時有的夫婦擁有一個以上的孩子，又有的家庭同時擁有兒子和女兒的情況下，若你的次女穿著你長子的衣服，那和社會規範是相悖的，而這對舊衣物的繼續使用就更難了。

The feisty resistance to clothing-based gender association died down a bit by then.

服裝對性別聯想的激烈抵制到那時已經有點消停了。

The trend of dressing little Suzie in pink while Scotty wore his light blue was back in style.

讓小 Suzie 穿上淺粉衣服，而讓 Scotty 穿上淺藍衣服的這種時尚又回來了。

It's a harsh world.

這是個殘酷的世界。

Modern times?

現代呢？

Fast-forward a few decades, and we're still seeing those familiar tones everywhere in kids' clothing aisles.

時間過了幾十年，這樣的時尚在世界各地的童裝區走道中依然隨處可見。

On Wednesdays, we wear pink.

在星期三，我們穿粉紅色的衣服。

Recent gender studies have tried to get to the bottom of just why this is still a thing, but it's something of a chicken-or-the-egg scenario.

當代的性別研究試圖弄清楚為什麼這樣的情況依舊持續著，但這是有點像先有雞還是先有蛋的情況。

Do we assign these colors to each gender because that's what they like, or do they gravitate toward these colors because that's what they're dressed in and that's what they see their peers doing?

是因為每個性別喜歡這樣的顏色，我們才把這些顏色分配給他們嗎？還是因為這本就是他們的穿著，而且他們同儕都這麼穿，所以才傾向於這些顏色？

One 2011 study offered babies the choice between 2 nearly identical objects.

2011 年的一項研究讓嬰兒在兩個幾乎相同的物體中進行選擇。

One was pink, the other wasn't.

一個是粉紅色的，另一個則不是。

When they were a year old, there was no difference in the number that would choose pink or the other color.

當他們一歲的時候，選擇其他顏色和粉色間的人數沒有太大的不同。

By the time they were 2 years old, many more girls were choosing pink.

到他們兩歲的時候，更多的女孩選擇了粉紅色。

By 4, the gender divide was evident on both sides, with most boys now refusing the pink item.

到了四歲，對於選擇顏色的性別差異就很明顯了，那時大多數男孩都會拒絕粉色物品。

Noticing a pattern here?

注意到這裡有一個模式嗎？

It's still hard to hone in on what exactly inspires that pigment preference, but it's clearly something that's learned along the way.

到底是什麼導致了對於顏色的偏好很難追根究底，但是很顯然那樣的偏好是在成長的過程學到的。

All grown up

成年之後

If it's true that kids feel pressured to like pink or blue based on the gender norms they're exposed to, the same doesn't exactly hold true in adulthood.

對於孩子們而言，基於他們接觸到的性別規範，他們會對喜歡粉紅色或藍色而感到壓力，但在成年後未必如此。

In 2012, a sociological study at the University of Maryland showed that when 2,000 people were asked to choose a favorite color between blue, pink, and a handful of other options, the overwhelming majority from both genders chose blue.

2012 年，馬里蘭大學的一項社會學研究顯示，當兩千多名人們被要求在藍色、粉色和其他一些顏色中選擇一個最喜歡的顏色時，絕大部分的男女都選擇了藍色。

While very few of the men chose pink as their primary pick from the spectrum, there were also few women who did so.

雖然有極少數男性在眾多顏色中以粉紅色作為他們的首選，但也有少數女性選擇粉色。

In other words, once we reach an age of maturity, that strong sense of devotion to pink might dissipate with women who gravitate towards favoring blue, just like the fellas.

換句話說，一旦到一定成熟年紀，女性對於粉色的強烈熱愛可能會隨著像男性一樣更喜歡藍色而消散。

Thanks for watching.

謝謝你的觀看！

Click the "List" icon to subscribe to our YouTube channel, plus, check out all this cool stuff we know you'll love, too.

點擊 List 圖標，訂閱我們的 YouTube 頻道，另外，點開這些很酷的東西看看，我們想你也會很喜歡的。