Q: You are always in pink, your entire environment is pink, where does this passion for this color come from?
A: My first encounter with pink was in 2006, I was a teenager and my lover had a pink shirt in his closet that he had never worn for fear of attracting attention. I put it on and it’s true that I was noticed, it’s as if it was an affirmation of my homosexuality. Over the years, I incorporated pink into my apartment, into my clothes and eventually eliminated all other colors to devote my research to pink, and this monochromatism became a scientific experiment.
Q: Pink is related to red, but is it a late arrival color?
A: Yes, it is a color that appeared in the 18th centurye century. Pink has a history full of contradictions and ambiguity. It’s a color that rivals red, but no one was really interested in it because pink is the color of the feminine, of what is superficial, frivolous. It is the color of kitsch, of spring, of flowers, of childhood. It’s also a color that questions gender and sexuality, and perhaps we didn’t want to risk it.
Q: Pink is first associated with the upper classes, with aristocrats?
A: In the 18the century, pink is a color that is associated with the rich, both men and women. Aristocrats wear pink clothes as a symbol of luxury. Madame de Pompadour, the mistress of King Louis XV, loved pink so much that Sèvres porcelain created a line in her honor called Pompadour pink! In the paintings of Jean-Honoré Fragonard, we see men and women dressed in pink. It was later, during the French Revolution in 1789, that we refocused on dark colors, we moved from pastel colors, wigs and makeup to very dark colors. It is this rejection of the aristocracy that will begin the symbolic feminization of pink, because the aristocracy has been associated with the feminine, with extravagance, with superficiality and it will become something that must be gotten rid of. Dark colors, on the contrary, signify authenticity and sobriety which is worthy of interest. There is therefore this shift from aristocratic pink to feminine pink which took place during the French Revolution.
Q: Pink for girls, blue for boys, since when?
A: We will have to wait for the arrival of psychoanalysis with Sigmund Freud who demonstrates an interest in infantile sexuality and the need for boys to identify as boys and girls to identify as girls. And it is from there that we will set up a system of differentiation which will go through color, but also through accessories, ribbons, lace, fabrics, and we will clearly identify what is feminine and what is masculine. This is where pink for girls and blue for boys will clash.
PHOTO MAJA SMIEJKOWSKA, REUTERS ARCHIVES
Actress Margot Robbie at the European premiere of the film barbie in London last June
Q: Pink is omnipresent in marketing, and you call “pinkification” the phenomenon of chromatic standardization that appeared in the 1980s with the Girl Culture and the success of Barbie.
A: There is really marketing that is interested in women, stereotypical marketing linked to women’s consumption, which will weld pink and the feminine in a negative way. Feminine pink is linked to everything superficial, artificial, fashion, makeup, beauty, perfume, toys. From birth, girls are immersed in a world of pink toys and they realize that it’s for girls! Barbie embodies pink in all its splendor and she will make toy history. It will revolutionize toys for girls, the success is immense, but there are two other pink waves in girls’ culture: Disney princesses and the world of Hello Kitty. In adolescence, we reject this color, because we do not want to be associated with childhood or with Bimbo sexuality linked to Barbie. Teenagers are distancing themselves from pink because it is either too childish or too sexualized when linked to Barbie.
Q: Do men and women end up rejecting pink?
A: In all studies on color, yes, men and women reject pink! Men do not want to be associated with femininity, and wearing pink is linked to homosexuality, with the exception of the upper classes and artists. Social class takes precedence over gender categories. Wearing this color for the wealthy social class is an extravagance that does not harm them. There are also, for example, rugby players who wear pink or even certain rappers, but these are people who are above ordinary mortals, they are exceptions.
Q: How can we change the perception of pink?
A: Throughout history, colors have symbolized everything and its opposite. For example, red is both power and love, but also destruction and fire. For pink, we could broaden the scope of femininity represented by this color which is very stereotypical today. We should include all femininities, women in all their diversity. Finally, we can say that pink means feminine, so what? What is the problem ? Alright, let’s leave the pink alone! Let’s stop using it to systematically refer to the feminine, let’s be more open and multiple.
Pink, a color struggling with gender
Amsterdam Editions
528 pages