Pink

Textcolor	black
Title	Pink
Pic	File:Color icon pink v2.svg
Symbolism	girls, love, health, breast cancer awareness, fairies, Valentine's Day, spring, Easter, beauty, cuteness, glamour
Hex	FFC0CB
R	255|g=192 |b=203|rgbspace=sRGB
C	0|m= 31|y= 7|k= 0
H	350|s= 25|v= 100

Pink is a mixture of red and white. Commonly used for Valentine's Day and Easter, pink is sometimes referred to as "the color of love." The use of the word for the color we know today as pink was first recorded in the late 17th century.

Although pink is roughly considered just as a tint of red, in fact most variations of pink lie between red, white and magenta colors. This means that the pink's hue is somewhat between red and magenta.

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. In most Indo-European languages, the color pink is called rosa. In Persian, it is called "صورتي", meaning "Color of the face".

Etymology

The color pink is named after the flowers called pinks, flowering plants in the genus Dianthus. The name derives from the frilled edge of the flowers—the verb "to pink" dates from the 14th century and means "to decorate with a perforated or punched pattern" (possibly from German "pinken" = to peck). As noted and referenced above, the word “pink” was first used as a noun to refer to the color we know today as pink in the late 17th century. The verb sense of the word “pink” continues to be used today in the name of the hand tool known as pinking shears.

Pinke

In the 17th century, the word pink or pinke was also used to describe a yellowish pigment, which was mixed with blue colors to yield greenish colors. Thomas Jenner's A Book of Drawing, Limning, Washing (1652) categorizes "Pink & blew bice" amongst the greens (p.  38), and specifies several admixtures of greenish colors made with pink—e.g. "Grasse-green is made of Pink and Bice, it is shadowed with Indigo and Pink ... French-green of Pink and Indico [shadowed with] Indico" (pp. 38–40). In William Salmon's Polygraphice (1673), "Pink yellow" is mentioned amongst the chief yellow pigments (p. 96), and the reader is instructed to mix it with either Saffron or Ceruse for "sad" or "light" shades thereof, respectively (p. 98).

In gender

knitting a pink scarf.]]

In Western culture, the practice of assigning pink to an individual gender began in the 1920s or earlier. An article in the trade publication Earnshaw's Infants' Department in June 1918 said: "The generally accepted rule is pink for the boys, and blue for the girls. 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." From then until the 1940s, pink was considered appropriate for boys because being related to red it was the more masculine and decided color, while blue was considered appropriate for girls because it was the more delicate and dainty color, or related to the Virgin Mary. Since the 1940s, the societal norm was inverted; pink became considered appropriate for girls and blue appropriate for boys, a practice that has continued into the 21st century.

Some feminists have sought to 'reclaim' the color pink. For example, the Swedish feminist party Feminist Initiative and the American activist women's group Code Pink: Women for Peace use pink as their color.

The pink ribbon is the international symbol of breast cancer awareness. Pink was chosen partially because it is so strongly associated with femininity.

It has been suggested that females prefer pink because of a preference for reddish things like ripe fruits and healthy faces, but the associated study has been criticized as "bad science".

The phrase "pink-collar worker" refers, in the West, to persons working in fields or jobs conventionally regarded as "women's work".

In sexuality

Whereas Jewish people were forced to wear a yellow star 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, a pink triangle (sometimes pointing up, contrary to Nazi usage) 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 lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual (LGBT) community which has different editions for various metropolitan areas. In France Pink TV is an LGBT cable channel. In business, the pink pound or pink dollar refers to the spending power of the LGBT community. Advertising agencies sometimes call the gay market the pink economy.

Though long discontinued, the now mainstream gay-oriented magazine The Advocate for many years of its early history featured a sometimes sizable section of personal ads and mostly sexually-oriented ads printed on pink paper and referred to as "the pink pages." As the gay rights movement gained increased mainstream momentum and public acceptance, and as the magazine itself became less underground and was distributed more widely on newsstands in "middle America," the publishers made the section more easily removable for those who preferred not to view/keep it with the main body of the magazine, and The Advocate eventually ceased to include the "pink pages" at all.

In Japan the color cherry blossom pink is associated with the vagina, and therefore, in Japan, softcore pornographic films are called pink movies.

In nature

Plants

Cherry blossoms only have a pink color when they bloom in the springtime.

Animals

Reptiles

The pink iguana is an iguana that was first identified in 1986 and first recognized as a distinct species in 2009.

Birds

Most flamingo species are pink in color due to pink pigments in their diet.

Mammals

Many pigs are colored pink.

The so-called "white elephant" is revered in several countries in Southeast Asia and is naturally pink.

The Pink Dolphin is a freshwater river dolphin endemic to the Orinoco, Amazon and Araguaia/Tocantins River systems of Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela. It is an endangered species and has a brain 40% larger than a human's.

In art

In 1973, Sheila Levrant de Bretteville created "Pink," a broadside meant to explore the notions of gender as associated with the color pink, for an American Institute of Graphic Arts exhibition about color. This was the only entry about the color pink. Various women including many in the Feminist Studio Workshop at the Woman's Building submitted entries exploring their association with the color. De Bretteville arranged the squares of paper to form a “quilt” from which posters were printed and disseminated throughout Los Angeles. She was often called "Pinky" as a result. 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" 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".

In human culture

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Academic dress

In the French academic dress system, the five traditional fields of study (Arts, Science, Medicine, Law and Divinity) are each symbolized by a distinctive color, which appears in the academic dress of the people who graduated in this field. Redcurrant, an extremely red shade of pink, is the distinctive color for Medicine (and other health-related fields) :fr:Groseille (couleur).

Adoption

In Ireland, Support group for Irish Pink Adoptions defines a pink family as a relatively neutral umbrella term for the single gay men, single lesbians, or same-gender couples who intend to adopt, are in the process of adopting, or have adopted. It also covers adults born/raised in such families. The group welcome the input of other people touched by adoption, especially people who were adopted as children and are now adults.

Alcoholic beverages

Seeing pink elephants is a euphemism for hallucinations caused by delirium tremens. The concept was used in the Disney's 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. A pink squirrel is made of white creme de cacao, creme de noyaux and cream. Pink Gin is a cocktail made by rinsing a glass with bitters and filling with gin.

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

In the 19th and early 20th century, pink was the traditional color used in cartography to represent the British Empire.

Clothing

The Chanel suit that Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis wore on the day that John F. Kennedy was assassinated was pink.

Pink (Victoria's Secret) is a line of loungeware clothing.

In the United Kingdom, wearing a pink shirt is often an indicator of far-right political affiliation, worn by members of the National Front (United Kingdom) or the British National Party.

Cosmetics

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

Economics

Pink Money refers to the financial power of the LGBT community.

Education

At the Miraloma Elementary School in San Francisco, California, on September 6, 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.

Employment

When one gets laid off or fired from one's job, in the United States, it is called getting a pink slip.

Film and television

Characters

The Pink Panther is a popular cartoon character. He is slightly talkative in two episodes.

In Power Rangers and their Japanese origins Super Sentai the Pink Rangers are always female and there was never a male Pink Ranger on the show. In one season () and its Japanese Equivalent Mirai Sentai Timeranger, the Pink Ranger (Jen Scotts) as well as her counterpart Yuri was the leader. The first Pink Ranger, Kimberly Hart, became an icon during the first season of the show.

In the animated TV series The Powerpuff Girls, the leader Blossom wears a pink dress that matches her pink eyes.

In the Sonic the Hedgehog series, one of the characters Amy Rose, is a pink hedgehog.

In The popular American sitcom shown in the 1960s I Dream Of Jeannie. Jeannie wears a pink, enticine harem outfit.

In My Little Pony Friendship is Magic, one of the main characters, Pinkie Pie, is a pony whose body and mane are varying shades of pink.

Other

Pretty In Pink has the color named in the title.

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.

In Japan, blue films were categorized as . Such description is not used recently since " became popular.

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.

Food

In Japanese language, pink has been described as , which means "peach color", but is more popular recently.

Gender

The color pink is often used to represent women or young girls. (See discussion above in section on Pink in gender and sexuality.).

Geography

Jaipur is known as the Pink City for its many colored buildings.

Gun rights

The Pink Pistols is a gay gun rights organization.

Health

In the pink is an English idiomatic expression for in good condition or in good health.

Pink is the official color for Breast Cancer awareness.

Literature

In Spanish and Italian, a "pink novel" (novela rosa in Spanish, romanzo rosa in Italian) is a sentimental novel marketed to women.

In Nathaniel Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown, Faith is wearing a pink ribbon in her hair which represents her innocence.

Carl Surely's short story "Dinsdale's Pink" is a coming of age tale of a young man growing up in Berlin in the 1930s, dealing with issues of gender, sexuality and politics.

Military

In Nazi Germany, in the Wehrmacht, the panzer divisions used pink military flags.

Music

Pink Friday album by singer/songwriter Nicki Minaj.

Pink Houses is a song by singer-songwriter John Mellencamp.

Pink 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.

In the Land of Grey and Pink is an album by Caravan.

Pink Moon is an album by the English singer/songwriter Nick Drake.

The Legendary Pink Dots are a cult-classic Anglo-Dutch experimental rock band.

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.

"Pretty in Pink" is a song by The Psychedelic Furs

Pink Martini is an orchestral band from Portland, Oregon.

Pink Floyd was an English rock band.

In The Sing Off, Solo wore pink T-shirts.

A Pink is a Korean Girl Group who debuted in 2011 with their single "I Don't Know".

Performance art

Pink Man is a performance artist currently living in the San Francisco Bay Area who wears a pink unitard while riding a unicycle.

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 (PS).

In maps of political parties in France, pink is used to represent the Socialist Party (PS).

Pink is the color of the Francophone Democratic Federalists (FDF), a Francophone political party in Belgium.

The Ontario Legislative Building (French: L'édifice de l'Assemblée législative de l'Ontario) is a structure in central Toronto, Ontario, that houses the viceregal suite of the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, and offices for members of the provincial parliament (MPPs). Clad in Ontario sandstone – with a pink-hue that has earned the building the colloquial name of The Pink Palace.

(Pink House), Buenos Aires. The official seat of the executive branch of the government of Argentina]] The Pink House () is the official seat of the executive branch of the government 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 is more commonly called the tulip revolution.

The city of Lund, Sweden staged a fake gay Nazi parade on 17 August 2005 with pink banners that said Welcome Gay Nazis in order to play a joke on and cause discomfort to Scandinavian neo-Nazis who stage a march each year in that city to honor a Swedish king.

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 (see Laetare Sunday) to mark the halfway point in these seasons of penance. For this reason, one of the candles in an Advent wreath may be pink, rather than purple. However, in some Protestant denominations, the pink candle is sometimes lit on the Fourth Sunday of Advent, sometimes known as the Sunday of Love.

Pink is the color most associated with Indian spiritual leader Meher Baba, who often wore 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

In Major League Baseball, pink bats are used by baseball players on Mother's Day as part of a weeklong program to benefit Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

Pink can mean the scarlet coat worn in fox hunting (a.k.a. "riding to hounds"). One legend about the origin of this meaning refers to a tailor named Pink (or Pinke, or Pinque).

The leader in the Giro d'Italia cycle race wears a pink jersey (maglia rosa); this reflects the distinctive pink-colored newsprint of the sponsoring Italian La Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper.

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.

Palermo, a soccer team based in Palermo, Italy, traditionally wears pink home jerseys.

WWE Hall of Famer Bret Hart, as well as other members of the Hart wrestling family, is known for his pink and black wrestling attire.

The Western Hockey League team Calgary Hitmen originally wore pink as a tribute to the affore mentioned Bret Hart, who was a part team owner at the time.

Toys

Toys aimed at girls often display pink prominently on packaging and the toy themselves.

Transportation planning

' Pink Breast Cancer Research Foundation Boeing 767-400ER ]]

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

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

Pink is one of the colors used in the fixtures of the MMDA such as bus shelters; the other one is light blue. Also, pink is painted on some streets of Metro Manila.

The Pink Line is a proposed subway through the city of West Hollywood.

Delta Air Lines has a Boeing 767-400ER aircraft painted in a pink livery for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

See also

Fuchsia (color) Fuchsia Pink

List of colors

Pink Panther

Rose (color)

Variations of pink

References

External links

Support group for Irish Pink Adoptions

Category:LGBT terms