iPhone Makes Pink Hot for Guys
For many American men, the color pink has traditionally been public enemy No. 1. But if the new iPhone 6S in rose gold is any indication, a modern infatuation with the blush hue seems to be slowly infiltrating the mainstream — and men are far from exempt. Still, men aren’t readily embracing the color with open arms. It’s a slow and cautious race, a power walk if you will.
Even with more men purchasing the new rose gold iPhone, many still aren’t willing to use the dreaded term, “pink.” They call it “bros gold” instead, a way for some men to keep their masculinity intact.
As playful as the term “bros gold” may be, it’s problematic, and proves that American men still struggle with their own machismo and self-image.
@varunkrish *internet hug* it’s so beautiful and NOT pink. A true bros gold
— Anoop Tiwari (@ianoopt) October 2, 2015
It’s a shame. At the very least, pink flatters most men and their complexions.
“It’s a universal color that anyone can and should wear,” says Dan Michel, associate fashion editor at Men’s Health.
Many cultures don’t consider pink emasculating at all. In Japan pink symbolizes masculinity after the annual spring cherry blossoms. The color represents young Japanese warriors who died in battle in the prime of life. Jaipur, a city in India’s Rajasthan state, is known as The Pink City, where everything grandiose and splendid is named after the color. In the 18th Century, Western cultures viewed a pink silk suit with embroidery as a sign of masculinity.
Why is it that in American culture in 2015, pink’s reputation is still less than?
“Somewhere along the line it became known as feminine,” explains Michel. The color has a homophobic connotation, with men describing other men who wear pink as “queer, gay or girly.”
Michel has a point. Nazis used a pink triangle to label suspected homosexuals during the Holocaust; they were forced to wear the pink badge like a scarlet letter.
But homophobic associations with pink are not only oppressive, they’re outdated. Michel points to a recent Men’s Health survey, in which 48% of female participants perceived men in pink as “hot and confident.”
“To me, men who do wear pink have that extra level of confidence,” he says of men who do not adhere to traditional gender or sexuality norms. “When a guy does wear pink, you know he’s truly comfortable in his own skin.”
Ironically, pink was historically a color allocated for baby boys and blue for girls in the U.S., according to Smithsonian magazine. Babies wore white when they were born without gender distinctions, but the use of color to distinguish gender started in the mid-1800s.
In the archives of a 1918 trade publication, Earnshaw’s Infants’ Department, pink was actually originally for boys. “The generally accepted rule is pink for the boys, and blue for the girls,” the article said. “The reason is that pink, being a more decided and stronger color, is more suitable for the boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is prettier for the girl.” Although decidedly sexist, the role reversal illustrates the arbitrariness of such gendered traditions.
In 1927 TIME magazine printed a chart “showing sex-appropriate colors for girls and boys according to leading U.S. stores. In Boston, Filene’s told parents to dress boys in pink. So did Best & Co in New York City, Halle’s in Cleveland and Marshall Field in Chicago.”
It was only in the 1940s when manufacturers made the switch: They dictated blue was now allocated for boys and pink for girls, so that babies resembled their parents’ attire. Baby Boomers were raised with these color norms until more unisex clothing emerged in the late ’60s and ’70s. In the mid ’80s the development of prenatal testing meant parents could yet again plan nurseries and outfits with designated colors, one that manufacturers and marketers quickly capitalized upon.
To this day, Gen X-ers and millennials have grown up feeling that pink is emasculating, a rationale that GQ’s Style Guy, Mark Anthony Green, says is “silly.”
“The fear [of pink] is irrational and stupid,” he tells Mashable. “There are all these stupid things in society and, unfortunately, all of these silly customs. Whoever came up with blue for boys only ruined a lot of dope pink outfits for the past few years.”
Green points to pop culture references in the past few years where pink has been used as an empowering staple. Look no further than Kanye West’s The College Dropout era where the artist uses a pink polo to signify power. The iconic Ralph Lauren staple was made prominent in the “All Falls Down” music video: The shirt with its mustard stain became an accidental trend.
Rapper Cam’ron made waves in 2002 when he wore head-to-toe pink fur, a look that Complex now describes as “killing it in every way possible.”
Of course, men have been wearing pink long before the 2000s. In French paintings, men were often seen in long, pink robes with floral appliques. In arguably the biggest style novel of the 1900s, Jay Gatsby was described as being an “Oxford man! Like hell he is! He wears a pink suit.” This followed in the 1974 version of the film where Robert Redford sports a very dapper three-piece pink suit.
But pink isn’t just something for dudes in years past. The color — with support of the pink iPhone — is making a resurgence on the runways of New York City to the red carpets of Hollywood.
Recently, Hollywood stylist Sam Spector, who dresses everyone from Andy Samberg in the recent Emmys to Daniel Radcliffe, considered creating a custom light pink tuxedo for one of his clients. Though he ended up going in a different direction, he said he and his client are still considering it for the right moment.
“Men in general are more style conscious because of celebrities,” he says to Mashable. They embrace style and do not conform to set rules that once existed in fashion.
Spector refers to the runways of up-and-coming, heralded brands like Baja East to mainstays like Gucci and Givenchy, all of which embrace pink and make it more accepted in mainstream culture.
“We see androgyny pop up in fashion in waves, and a tsunami is rolling into shore as we speak,” he says. “Gender lines are blurring in fashion, so it’s no surprise that men are feeling more comfortable embracing colors that are traditionally prescribed as feminine. [They’re] more comfortable embracing the rose gold iPhone color for [these] reasons.”
Green agrees, saying that the lines of gender are becoming more and more blurred, even in the pages of men’s fashion bible GQ.
“We live in an age where Dwyane Wade paints his toenails,” he says. “More guys are dying their hair blonde and gray. Those lines of what is traditionally ‘masculine’ are gone…It’s now about embracing pink. You don’t have to be afraid anymore.”