pink

Pink
— Common connotations —
girls, love, health, breast cancer awareness, fairies, Valentine's Day, homosexuality, bisexuality, spring, Easter, beauty, air, cuteness
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet		#FFC0CB
sRGBB	(r, g, b)	(255, 192, 203)
HSV	(h, s, v)	(350°, 25%, 100%)
Source		HTML/CSS[1]
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

Pink is a pale red color; the use of the word for the color was first recorded in the late 17th century^[2], describing the flowers of pinks, flowering plants in the genus Dianthus. 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). ^[3] The word is also used in the binomial names of several species, such as the Rosy Starling (Sturnus roseus) and Catharanthus roseus.

In the 17th century, however, the word pink was also used to describe a greenish or yellowish color. Thomas Jenner's A Book of Drawing, Limning, Washing (1652) categorizes "Pink & blew bice" amongst the greens (p.38)^[4], 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).

Pink in gender

Person in a pink sweatshirt knitting a pink scarf

• In Western culture, the practice of assigning pink to an individual gender began in the 1920s.^[5] 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.^[6][7][8] 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.^[9]

• 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 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.^[10]

• It has been suggested that females prefer pink because of a preference for reddish things like ripe fruits and healthy faces.^[11][12]

Pink 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, the pink triangle is often worn with pride.^[13]
• 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.^[14] 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.^[15] 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.^[16]
• 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.^[17][18]

Pink in nature

• The pink iguana is an iguana that was first identified in 1986 and first recognized as a distinct species in 2009.
• Most flamingo species are pink in color due to pink pigments in their diet.
• The so-called "white elephant" is revered in several countries in Southeast Asia and is naturally pink.

Pink in human culture

Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (July 2008)

Pink tulips.

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)[1].

Alcoholic beverages

• Seeing pink elephants is a euphemism for hallucinations caused by delirium tremens. ^[19] 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. [2] A pink squirrel is made of white creme de cacao, creme de noyaux and cream. [3]
• Pink Gin is a cocktail made by rinsing a glass with bitters and filling with gin.^[20]

Art

• 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. ^[21]
• Bubblegum Pink is an installation by the artist duo Bigert & Bergstrom which "confronted [the viewer] with three different mental climates" ^[22] 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. ^[23]
• Christo and Jeanne-Claude's Surrounded Islands wrapped wooded islands in Miami's Biscayne Bay with 6,500,000 square feet (604,000 m²) of bright pink fabric. ^[24] Thomas von Taschitzki has said that "the monochrome pink wrappings"..."form a counterpoint to the small green wooded islands." ^[25]
• 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". ^[26].

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 (Victoria's Secret) is a line of loungeware clothing.^[27]

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 6 September 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. ^[28]

Employment

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

Film

• Pretty In Pink has the color named in the title
• 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).
• In Japan, blue films were categorized as Pink films (ピンク映画, Pinku Eiga^?)^[29]. Such description is not used recently since "Adult Videos (アダルトビデオ, Adaruto Bideo^?) became popular.
• In the movie adaptation of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Dolores Jane Umbridge wears only pink and has a pink office.

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 Momoiro (桃色, Momo-Iro^?), which means "peach color", but Pink (ピンク, Pinku^?) 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.).

Gun Rights

• The Pink Pistols is a gay gun rights organization. ^[30]

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

Literature

• In Spanish, a novela rosa ("pink novel") 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.^[31]

Music

• Pink Houses is a song by singer-songwriter John Mellencamp.
• Pink is an American singer-songwriter whose real name is Alecia Moore. ^[32]
• "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 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.

Panelology

• A new form of Kryptonite called pink kryptonite appeared in Supergirl Comics in 2003. It turns super-powered Kryptonians temporarily gay. ^[33]

Parapsychology

• It has been asserted that people with pink auras are those who strongly desire romantic relationships.^[34]

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. ^[35]

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

• 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. ^[36]
• 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. ^[37]

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^{[citation needed]}.
• 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 ( sample (help·info)), 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

• 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. ^[38]
• Palermo, a soccer team based in Palermo, Italy, traditionally wears pink home jerseys.

Toys

• Mattel's Barbie line often displays pink prominently on packaging and other goods.

Transportation planning

• 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.
• 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 thru the city of West Hollywood.

See also

Look up in the pink in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• List of colors
• Fuchsia Pink
• Magenta
• Rose
• Pink (singer)
• Pink noise
• Pink Panther
• Variations of pink

References

External links

• Google Answers – Pink, Why Feminine?