Pink

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Pink is a pale red color that was first recorded in the 17th century to describe the pale red flowers of pinks, flowering plants in the genus Dianthus. The color 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. Pink can also be made by combining red and white (the more white that is added to red, the lighter the tint of the new color, pink).

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). [1] The word is also used in the binomial names of several species, such as the Rosy Starling (Sturnus roseus) and Catharanthus roseus.

[edit] Pale pink

At right is displayed the color pale pink, a light, desaturated shade of pink.

[edit] Pastel pink

At right is displayed the color Pastel pink. In Western culture, pastel pink is used to symbolize baby girls just as baby blue is often used to symbolize baby boys. See the section Pink in gender, below.

[edit] Web color pink

At right is displayed web color pink.

This color is identical to the color Tamarisk, the color of the flowers of the Tamarisk plant.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Web color lightpink (medium pink)

At right is displayed the web color lightpink (no space).

However, if proper English usage regarding color nomenclature is to be maintained, since this color has a lower value than "pink", it should really be called medium pink if the web color "pink" (shown above) is accepted as the standard for pink. It comes in many different shades: such as hot pink and rose pink.

[edit] Nadeshiko pink

At right is displayed the color nadeshiko pink, called nadeshiko-iro (撫子色) in Japanese.

It is named after carnation (nadeshiko 撫子).

[edit] Web color hotpink

At right is displayed the web color hotpink (no space).

[edit] Web color deeppink

At right is displayed the web color deeppink (no space).^[1]

[edit] Dark pink

At right is displayed the color dark pink, a darker, desaturated shade of pink.

[edit] Bright pink

At right is displayed a neutral shade of bright pink.

[edit] Shocking pink

Shocking Pink, (also called neon pink) is bold and intense. Fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli popularized this color in 1936, naming it shocking pink; it was the color of the box her perfume called Shocking Pink came in (the box was shaped like the torso of film star Mae West).

"This intense magenta was called shocking pink in the 1930s, hot pink in the 1950s, and kinky pink in the 1960s...[it] has appeared in the vanguard of more than one youth revolution...to some it sings, to others it screams" ^[2] It is sometimes used as a slang term to refer to the female genitalia. This color is now again called "shocking pink" to distinguish it from the web color hot pink (shown above). Its appearance is more akin to magenta than it is to traditional pink. This color has always been popular among the avant-garde.

NHRA drag racer, Shirley Muldowney was famous for driving a shocking pink dragster.

On its way into the German language, shocking pink lost the "shocking" and is called only "Pink", while the English color "pink" is referred to as "Rosa". Meanwhile in Portuguese one of its nomenclatures arrived intact becoming "cor-de-rosa choque" ("shocking pink") used more frequently in Brazil. It's also called "çingene pembesi" (Gypsy pink) in Turkish.

[edit] Pink in gender

• In Western culture, the practice of assigning pink to an individual gender began in the 1920s^[3]. From then until the 1940s, pink was considered appropriate for boys because it was the more masculine and decided color while blue was considered appropriate for girls because it was the more delicate and dainty color^[4][5]. 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^[6].
• 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 uses pink as its color.

• Pink is the color of the Breast Cancer Awareness ribbon. Pink was chosen partially because it is so strongly associated with femininity. ^[7]

• It has been suggested that females prefer pink because of an evolutionary preference for reddish things like ripe fruits and healthy faces.^[8][9] This suggestion, however, has been criticized as unsubstantiated. ^[10]

[edit] Pink in sexuality

• Whereas Jewish people were forced to wear the yellow stars 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. ^[11]

• 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 gay, lesbian, bisexual and transsexual (GLBT) community which has different editions for various metropolitan areas. ^[12]

• In business, the pink pound or pink dollar refers to the spending power of the GLBT community. ^[13] Advertising agencies call the gay market the pink economy.

[edit] Pink in human culture

Alcoholism

• Seeing pink elephants is a euphemism for drunken hallucinations caused by delirium tremens. ^[14]

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.
• Bubblegum Pink is an installation by the artist duo Bigert & Bergstrom which "confronted [the viewer] with three different mental climates" ^[15] 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. ^[16]
• Christo and Jeanne-Claude's Surrounded Islands wrapped wooded islands in Miami's Biscayne Bay with 6.5 million square feet of bright pink fabric. ^[17] Thomas Von Taschitzki has said that "the monochrome pink wrappings"..."form a counterpoint to the small green wooded islands". ^[18]
• Many of Franz West's aluminum 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" and has alluded to phallic associations ^[19].

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.

Cartography

• Pink (or red) is traditionally used on maps for territory ruled by the British Empire or for members of the Commonwealth of Nations.

Clothing

• Pink is a line of loungeware clothing carried by Victoria's Secret. ^[20]
• Pink shirts are now tremendously popular throughout Western Civilization, but were not always so. They were once seen as a camp or even homosexual colour. At the forefront of the "pink revolution" was a Mr. J. Lewis Ritchie LLB(hons) who is credited by many as the first to popularize the garment.

Chromatics

• Pink is used to describe a range of colors (shown above), from shades of red or orange to the more popularly used shades of pink that are shades of rose or magenta.

Cosmetics

• Mary Kay in 1968, Mary Kay Ash, purchased the first Pink Cadillac, which eventually became the trademark of her company.

Education

• At the Miraloma Elementary School in San Francisco, California, on 6 September 2007, the principal, Ron Machado, got a pink Mohawk haircut , as he had agreed to do if the students raised the school’s Academic Performance Index by at least 55 points. They raised it by 67 points. ^[21]

Film

• Pretty In Pink has the color named in the title
• In the film, Freaky Friday, Linsday Lohan's character is in a band called "Pink Slip"
• Softcore adult films in Japan are often called pink movies because the color cherry blossom pink (shown above) is associated in Japan with the vagina. ^[22]
• 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).

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.

Gender

• The color pink is often used to represent women (See discussion above in section on Pink in gender).

Health

• In the pink is an English idiomatic expression for in good condition or in good health.
• Thailand's much-revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej, 79, left Bangkok's Siriraj Hospital Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2007, wearing a pink blazer, shirt and tie, to the great confusion of HM's yellow-shirted subjects: as noted above under Calendars, pink is associated with Tuesday on the Thai solar calendar, while yellow is associated with Monday, the day on which HM was born. The English phrase in the pink is largely unknown. Coverage by the Bangkok Post noted that "Thais believe that pink is an auspicious colour for those who were born in the Year of the Rabbit ...[and] the King..."was born under that sign." Whatever the reason for HM's choice, it has caused an upsurge in the sale of pink shirts (published on November 9, 2007).

Categories: Articles with unsourced statements since September 2007 | All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements since February 2007 | Shades of pink | Shades of red | LGBT terms