We’re doing a blogger outreach right now, reaching out to mom bloggers and asking them to review our medium baby bunches.
The baby bunches are offered in pink, in blue and in a gender-neutral yellow, and since each blogger (and giveaway winner) gets to pick their color, it’s interesting to me to see how they make these color choices. (To receive information about our giveaways, as well as Twitter-only promotion codes, please follow us on Twitter.)
I definitely see a trend there: moms who are expecting girls, or who have friends who are expecting girls, are asking for a pink bunch. Moms to baby boys are requesting blue bunches, and those who are not sure yet about what they will do with the bunches after reviewing them – maybe anticipating a baby shower at some point in the future – are opting for a neutral yellow.
I always assumed that “pink for girls, blue for boys” was something cultural and arbitrary, but when researching for this post, I discovered that there is actually research that says that women across cultures show preference for red-based colors, including pink and lilac and that the reason dates back to women’s ancient roles as gatherers (while men were hunters) – women learned to become attuned to the reds of the ripe berries and other fruits and to prefer these colors.
Like many other human behaviors, “pink for girls, blue for boys” is likely a combination of genetic and cultural influences. Of course, not everyone accepts this norm and some actively rebel against it. When my first daughter was born, I dressed her in many colors, including soft blue, and avoided pink as a matter of principal! Of course, people kept asking me why I was dressing a girl in blue (the horror!) and when she turned three, she insisted, like many other little girls, to ONLY wear pink. I obliged her.
So, when choosing a baby gift, should you follow traditional color norms, should you rebel against them, or should you go with neutral colors? My personal recommendation, when bringing someone a gift, would be to definitely not rebel – that would be a mistake in terms of gifting etiquette. I would say that if you know the person well enough to know their personal preferences, definitely go with that. If you’re not sure, or in the case of, say, a coworker baby gift, neutrals such as yellow or white are probably best.
Having said that, if you know the baby’s gender, and you are in the United States, getting a pink baby gift for a baby girl or a blue baby gift for a baby boy would probably be just fine. The cultural norm is so deeply ingrained here that I can’t imagine anyone would have any problem whatsoever with following the tradition.
As for our baby bunches, we designed the pink baby bunch specifically for baby girls, the blue baby bunch specifically for baby boys, and we also have two gender-neutral baby bunches: the yellow bunch and the white winter bunch.
