Pink Girl, Blue Boy: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

In fiction, and sometimes in [[Real Life]], we tend to [[Color Coded for Your Convenience|differentiate between "girly colors" and boyish ones]]. It is clearer with babies, when we are prone to see girls dressed in pink and boys in light blue.

 

 

Note that lots of female characters have had a pink motif that they wear with pride and sheer [[Cute Bruiser|badassery]]. Male characters as well, because [[Real Men Wear Pink]]. But sometimes, pink is considered too childish and disrespectful, especially to an adult woman, so [[Lady in Red|red]] may be substituted.

Can crop up in many [[Boys Love]] and [[Girls Love]] stories; the active partner (''[[Seme]]'' in BL, ''[[Onee-Sama]]'' in GL) is unlikely to wear "girly" colors such as pink, but the passive partner (''[[Uke]]'', ''neko'') frequently does, and (especially in GL but sometimes in BL) may even have [[Rose-Haired Girl|pink hair]].

 

 

Compare [[Tertiary Sexual Characteristics]], [[Red Oni, Blue Oni]], [[Colour-Coded for Your Convenience]], [[Pink Is for Sissies]], [[Princesses Prefer Pink]]. Not to be confused with [[Pink Boy Blue Girl]], which describes a pairing of a masculine girl and a feminine boy.

 

== Fan Fiction ==

 

 

== Video Games ==

* ''[[Bubble Bobble (Video Game)|Bubble Bobble]]'': One of [[Ryu and Ken|the original two]] is the underdog Bob, who is a male human-turned-blue bubble dragon. His apparent partner in ''Bubble Symphony'' (in cutscenes, she is ''always'' beside Bob) is Coro, a female human-turned-magenta bubble dragon and one of the new group of two. Extended with green for Bub (a boy) and orange for Kulu (a girl), who are also beside each other in cutscenes.

* Amy Rose and [[Sonic the Hedgehog]] of the eponymous series. Since the Dreamcast era, Amy has been wearing all red to go with her pink fur. [[Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal|Sonic, on the other hand...]]

** This does bring up some confusion at one point, as {{spoiler|the animal inside the rather masculine E-102 is a pink bird}}.

* Subverted in ''[[Panel De Pon]]''; Sharbet and Elias both have primarily blue color schemes and are both female, like the rest of the fairies.

* Jacques (the Blue Boy) and Aila (the Pink Girl) from ''[[Suikoden III]]''.

** Notably averted in some of the games, however. Zelda wears blue and white in ''[[A Link to The Past]]'', and in ''[[Twilight Princess]]'', she wears purple and white.

* [[Professor Layton]]'s young companions fit the trope. His apprentice, Luke, wears a blue hat and blue sweater, while his adopted daughter Flora wears a pink hair ribbon and either a white and pink (''[[Curious Village]]'') or pink and brown (the other games) dress.

** Wendy from ''[[Peter Pan (Disney)|Peter Pan]]'' wore a blue nightdress, while her younger brother Michael wore pink pajamas.

** In ''[[Lady and The Tramp (Disney)|Lady and The Tramp]]'', Lady has a blue collar, and Tramp gains a red collar at the end of the movie. Meanwhile, the baby in the movie is a boy, but his entire room and pajamas are pink.

*** Tie-ins for this movie are notorious for getting this messed up. Often, Pongo and Perdita's collars will be switched, or some of them will be pink instead of red... actually, on the cover of the first VHS release, several of the puppies had magenta, purple, and even yellow collars.

** The trend is shattered, though, in the late 1960s, where one would find girls popping up more frequently in purples and pinks ([[The Jungle Book (Disney)|Shanti]], [[Robin Hood (Disney)|Maid Marian]], [[The Rescuers (Disney)|Bianca]], [[The Black Cauldron (Disney)|Eilonwy]], [[Hercules (Disney)|Megara]], [[The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney)|Esmeralda]]), girls wearing whatever the movie would require ([[Pocahontas (Disney)|Pocahontas]] in tan...but with a blue necklace), and then finally, girls who took both blue and pink/red in stride. Examples of pink-and-blue sharing being:

* In the Netherlands, it's tradition for parents and older siblings to serve rusk topped with 'muisjes', little sugar-covered aniseed sprinkles, to visitors, colleagues, and classmates to celebrate a newborn. While initially only available in a pink/white mix, a blue/white mix became available in the early 90s and is now generally used when a boy is born. Since 1938, an orange/white mix has been created for a short period after a royal birth, and with the 'birth' of the new pope in 2005, some catholic institutions handed out rusks topped with yellow/white muisjes, though these were not widely sold in supermarkets, if at all.

* In the 1920s, pink was deemed more appropriate for boys due to its close associations with red. Blue was assigned to girls since it was more “delicate and dainty” and had close ties to the imagery of the Virgin Mary. This practice continued until the 1940s, when the gender colors were reversed and became the stereotypes that we are still familiar with today.

* Many restroom signs are pink for women and blue for men. This may even go as far as the restroom's wall color, and some bathrooms take it even further. Pink and blue toilets for their respective bathrooms, pink or blue sinks, pink or blue dryers/paper towel dispensers (although, thankfully, the paper inside is still white or brown), and yes, even pink or blue liquid soap.

* The cere (the small patch of skin above the beak) of a male parakeet is blue. That of the female is brown.

[[Category:Nana (Manga)/Characters]]

[[Category:Pink Girl Blue Boy]]