Baby Girls Wore BLUE? Boys Wore PINK?

 "Baby clothes, which since at least the 1940s have been routinely divided along gender and color lines, pink for girls, blue for boys, were, said the Times, once just the other way about. In the early years of the twentieth century, before World War I, boys wore pink (‘a stronger, more decided color,’ according to the promotional literature of the time) while girls wore blue (understood to be ‘delicate’ and ‘dainty’). Only after World War II, the Times reported, did the present alignment of the two genders with pink and blue come into being." (1, Marjorie Garber, Vested Interests, 1992, Harper Collins: New York, NY)

ORIGINAL SOURCE:

Sandra Salmans, "Objects and Gender: When an It Evolves into a He or a She," New York Times, November 16, 1989, B1