Today, red is considered a girl’s color just like pink. Believe it or not, in the past red and pink used be regarded as fairly masculine colors.
Red is a very powerful, aggressive and passionate color, no matter from which perspective you look at it. For this reason, a multitude of militaries incorporated many red elements into the uniforms. Just like in the blockbuster 300, the famous Spartan army wore red capes when they went into war. The Roman legions dyed their shields and military standards red, while the British army wore red frock coats. Of course and not very surprisingly Communist military groups used red in all their symbols, emblems and flags.
So whenever you frown upon a man wearing red, stop and think again. But when and how exactly did red become a color associated with femininity? Until the 20ies, fashionable men wore red while boys wore pink which was considered the red for young men. But when fashionable parents started to dress their boys in the complementary color blue due to the growing popularity of marine shirts, red slowly became a feminine color. When Barbie was brought onto the market, wearing pink, pink and red finally became typical girly colors.
By now, everyone knows that colors aren’t gender-specific and that everyone can wear whatever color they like because sexism is certainly something that has no place in a modern society like ours. But let’s be honest, we still have to smirk a bit when we see men wearing a pink polo shirt….
