Pink Frilly Dresses (PFD) and Early Gender Identity

Published By: Princeton University

The color pink has a clear and compelling connotation in contemporary American culture. It symbolizes females and femininity. But why would little girls refuse to wear anything but pink, not only dresses, but also hats, gloves, jackets, raincoats, socks, and even underwear? That baby girls are swaddled in pink blankets and often dressed in pink "onesies" is well-known to everyone. Of particular interest to us, however, is a kind of rigid adherence to the color code in children 3-4 years of age. As researchers in the field of developmental psychology who study gender development, we have noticed that a large proportion of girls pass through a stage when they virtually refuse to go out of the house unless they are wearing a dress, often pink and frilly. The intensity of these desires and the extremity with which they are expressed has piqued our research interest. One young mother reported that her 3-year-old daughter could only be convinced to wear something other than pink when she was physically shown that all of her pink clothing was in the laundry. What is the driving force behind this phenomenon, which we call PFD?

Author(s): Kristina Zosuls, Leah Lurye, Diane Ruble | Posted on: May 07, 2015 | Views()


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