Pink Totally Explained

Everything about Pink totally explained

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. This color stands for beauty, grace and goodness. 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. 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). The word is also used in the binomial names of several species, such as the Rosy Starling (Sturnus roseus) and Catharanthus roseus.

Pale pink

Shocking pink (also called neon pink) is bold and intense. It takes its name from the shade used on the box of the perfume called Shocking, designed by Leonor Fini for the Surrealist fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli in 1937. This in turn was inspired by the Tête de Belier (Ram's Head), a 17.27ct pink diamond from Cartier owned by heiress Daisy Fellowes, who was one of Schiaparelli's best clients.
Shocking pink kept its name in British English, It is sometimes used as a slang term to refer to the female genitalia, also called the vagina. 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's 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.

Pink in gender

In Western culture, the practice of assigning pink to an individual gender began in the 1920s. 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. 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.
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's so strongly associated with femininity.

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

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.

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. In France Pink TV is a LGBT cable channel.

In business, the pink pound or pink dollar refers to the spending power of the BLT and GTO (see Pontiac) communities. Advertising agencies sometimes call the gay market the pink economy.

In Japan the color Cherry Blossom Pink is associated with a woman's vagina, and therefore, in Japan, softcore pornographic films are called pink movies.

In the bandana code of the gay leather subculture, wearing a pink bandana means that one is into the fetish of playing with dildos. Wearing a dark pink bandana means that one is into tit torture.

Pink in human culture

Alcohol

Seeing pink elephants is a euphemism for drunken hallucinations caused by delirium tremens. The concept was used in the Disney animated film Dumbo when the title character accidentally becomes drunk and sees a parade of pink elephants.

A pink lady is an alcoholic beverage made with gin and grenadine syrup and may include other ingredients. (External Link

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) A pink squirrel is made of white creme de cacao, creme de noyaux and cream. (External Link

) Art

Bubblegum Pink is an installation by the artist duo Bigert & Bergstrom which "confronted [theviewer] with three different mental climates" 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.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude's Surrounded Islands wrapped wooded islands in Miami's Biscayne Bay with of bright pink fabric. Thomas von Taschitzki has said that "the monochrome pink wrappings"..."form a counterpoint to the small green wooded islands".

Many of Franz West's aluminium 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 . 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. Clothing

Pink is a line of loungeware clothing carried by Victoria's Secret. 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'd agreed to do if the students raised the school’s Academic Performance Index by at least 55 points. They raised it by 67 points. Film

Pretty In Pink has the color named in the title

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.

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. 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). Literature

In Spanish, a novela rosa ("pink novel") is a sentimental novel marketed to women. Music

P!nk is an American singer-songwriter whose real name is Alecia Moore.

"Pink" is a song by Aerosmith.

Under The Pink is an album by Tori Amos.

Pink Floyd is a British progressive rock band.

Pink Anderson, an American blues musician who served as part of the inspiration for the name of Pink Floyd.

Pink Fairies is a British hard rock band; one of the founding members, Twink released a solo album called Think Pink.

"Think Pink!" is a song from Funny Face.

Pink Cadillac (song) is a 1984 humorous rockabilly song by Bruce Springsteen

Elvis Presley owned what is the most famous Pink Cadillac

in the world

Japanese stoner/drone band Boris have a 2005 album called Pink.

Pink Lady was a Japanese female pop music duo of the late 1970s and early 1980s, featuring Mitsuyo Nemoto ("Mie") and Keiko Masuda ("Kei").

Pinky was a Japanese punk rock performer in the early 1990s.

Shocking Blue – whose name may be a gender-reversing play on shocking pink – was a Dutch rock band that was founded in the late 1960s.

The Pink Spiders, an American power pop band.

The Flaming Lips, an alternative/psychedelic band, produced the album Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots. Parapsychology

It has been asserted that people with pink auras are those who strongly desire romantic relationships. Politics

Pink, being a 'watered-down' red, is sometimes used in a derogatory way to describe a person with mild communist or socialist beliefs (see Pinko).

In maps of political parties in Portugal, pink is used to represent the Socialist Party.

The Pink House is the residence of the President of Argentina.

Code Pink is an anti-war organization co-founded in 2002 by anti-corporate globalization activist Medea Benjamin of the NGO Global Exchange in San Francisco.

The term pink revolution may be used to refer to the overthrow of President Askar Akayev and his government in the Central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan after the parliamentary elections of February 27 and of March 13 2005, although it's more commonly called the tulip revolution. Religion

In Catholicism, pink (called rose by the Catholic Church) symbolizes joy and happiness. It is used for the Third Sunday of Advent and the Fourth Sunday of Lent to mark the halfway point in these seasons of penance. However, in some Protestant denominations, the pink candle is sometimes lit on the Fourth Sunday of Advent, the Sunday of Love.

Pink is the color most associated with Indian spirtual leader Meher Baba, who often were pink coats to please his closest female follower, Mehera Irani, and today pink remains an important color, symbolizing love, to Baba's followers.

The Invisible Pink Unicorn is the goddess of a parody religion, a rhetorical tool intended to satirize the contradictory properties often attributed to deities. Sonics

Pink noise, also known as 1/f noise, is a signal or process with a frequency spectrum such that the power spectral density is proportional to the reciprocal of the frequency. Sports

The University of Iowa's Kinnick Stadium visitors' locker room is painted pink. The decor has sparked controversy, perceived by some people as suggesting sexism and homophobia. Toys

Mattel's Barbie line often displays pink prominently on packaging and other goods. Rapid transit lines

The Chicago Transit Authority recently debuted the Pink Line light rail service.

In the London Underground system, Hammersmith & City Line, running from Hammersmith to Barking is assigned the color pink on the tube map.Further Information

Get more info on 'Pink'.

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