Pink, the color of Barbie, is possibly the oldest hue on the planet. This is how it ruled the globe.

Pink might be the oldest hue on Earth. That is the implication of a 2018 study that discovered vivid pink pigments in 1.1 billion-year-old rocks, which were made possible by the fossilized remains of the billions of tiny cyanobacteria that previously ruled the oceans.

Pink has long been a predominant color in the natural world, whether it is found imbedded in ancient rock, on shrimp-eating flamingos, or just along Bermuda's pink-sand beaches.

However, the color has a lot of cultural connotations. Pink gained associations with colonialism, beauty, power, and gender as it transitioned from nature's color pallet to human ornamentation.

How did pink become such a hot topic in culture? Here is a brief history of the alluring color as the globe regains interest in the hot pink planet where Barbie resides.

The ancient world's love of the color pink

Early people quickly moved from admiring pink in nature to attempting to wear it; for instance, in the Andes Mountains about 9,000 years ago, fearless hunters in what is now Peru wore tailored leather clothing with a pink hue thanks to red ochre, an iron oxide pigment that is one of the first natural pigments used by people. Red ochre is one of the oldest pigments used by humans.

This pigment was used by humans for more than merely painting cave walls or tanning leather clothing. Humans have been using ochre to color their lips and cheeks since ancient Egypt. The red pigment produced a blush-like pink on human skin, which observers connected with love, sexuality, and beauty. Around the world, similar mixtures predominated and included ingredients like red amaranth and crushed strawberries.

Cosmetics' color, along with colonization

The term "pink" was employed to describe the color in the 18th century, despite the fact that its etymology is uncertain. As a result of the desire for pink as a cosmetics pigment at that time, which led Europeans to exploit natural resources in other regions of the world, the color pink had come to be synonymous with colonialism.

For instance, European traders compelled enslaved laborers to cut down so many of Brazil's namesake trees in order to manufacture pinkish pigments from their bark and red sap that the land was left deforested and the tree was almost driven extinct.

Consumers also received their pink cheeks and lips during this period of exploration from other pigments like carmine, which was made from cochineal insects gathered in Central and South America under comparable circumstances.

As the British Empire expanded during this period, the color pink—which mapmakers used to denote imperial possessions all over the world—became increasingly explicitly associated with colonialism.

Pink develops into a legitimate fashion trend.

European nobility indulged their passion for pink in the 18th century as red tints became more widely available and less expensive. The most affluent groups in European society desired pastels, halftones, and the most recent advancements in color shades, according to art historian Michel Pastoureau, "in order to distinguish themselves from the middle classes, who now had access to bright, strong, and reliable colors."

The hue was a signature employed by Louis XV of France's mistress throughout the 1740s and 1750s, Madame de Pompadour. Pink was employed in all of the designs by the painters who painted her and produced exquisite items for her several homes, including her carriages, and she contributed to the color's wider ubiquity in Europe.

Pink became more widely available than ever before with the development of synthetic dyes in the middle of the 19th century, which gave rise to the mauve shade of purple-pink. Bright pink had established itself as a legitimate fashion trend by the 1930s. Elsa Schiaparelli, an avant-garde fashion designer, popularized the trend for women's clothing by making "shocking pink" her hallmark hue.

It was successful because by 1935, even regional publications like the News & Observer in Raleigh, North Carolina, were announcing that "PINK IS FAVORITE." And in 1939, a royal critic claimed in London's Daily Telegraph that pink was so widely used by debutantes and bridesmaids that it was practically universal. The pink trend is so widespread, according to the newspaper, that some ladies are defying it.

Pink is...for...boys?

Pink also became popular in infant fashion at around the same time. Since the beginning of World War I, etiquette books and fashion advice columns have been instructing mothers to dress their children in clothing with gender-specific colors.

But what hues? According to a 1927 retailer poll on infant clothing colors that was reported in TIME, pink was best for females but stores like Macy's, Bullock's, and Filene's claimed pink was best for boys.

However, by the 1960s, mothers started buying pink attire for their female newborns and pastel blue clothing for their male offspring.

According to historian Jo B. Paoletti, "none of this transition occurred by childcare expert fiat or industry proclamation." Instead, as part of a post-World War II effort to uphold traditional gender roles in American homes—and the recognition by retailers that they could earn more money that way—pink gained traction as a signal of a baby's female sex.

It would be more difficult for parents to pass down clothing from one child to the next, and they would have to purchase more clothing as their family grew, according to Paoletti, "the more baby clothing could be designed for an individual child—and sex was the easiest and most obvious way to distinguish babies." Retailers soon had entire "pink aisles" filled with children's toys and clothing in the color pink.

The negative aspects of pink

Others disapproved of pink because they saw it as a sign of fragility or even evil intent.

The hue was used to stigmatize gay men in Nazi Germany's incarceration and death camps, for instance, and as the Cold War developed, people who were thought to be Communist sympathizers were called "pinkos"—a term that denoted someone with "red" leaning toward radical politics.

Women's liberation activists attempted to disassociate themselves from a color that had grown to be synonymous with sex and femininity. For example, picture Marilyn Monroe slinking down a staircase in a bright pink gown while surrounded by men in tuxedos.

In contrast, anti-feminists welcomed pink; author Helen B. Andelin, for instance, made public appearances in all-pink costumes at lectures encouraging women to give up feminism and embrace lives as housewives in the 1960s and 1970s.

Rediscovering pink

Pink is still considered a feminine color, but in recent years, groups that were once derisively linked with the color have made an effort to reclaim it.

People who were once made to wear pink as an outcast in the LGBTQ community, for instance, have chosen the color as a representation of their campaign for social justice. A bubble-gum pink triangle was used by the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) in 1987 as part of its "Silence = Death" campaign to raise awareness of HIV-AIDS and reduce its stigma. It was just one instance of how pink had been exploited to symbolize LGBT pride.

Some feminists have also taken back the hue, rejecting gender norms by jokingly donning all hues of rose, fuchsia, and bubblegum pink. For instance, at the 2017 Women's March, a sea of demonstrators donning pink "pussy hats" with cat ears demonstrated against the swearing-in of U.S. President Donald Trump, whose obscene statements about female genitalia in a leaked interview attracted widespread criticism.

Pink is what you make of it now, and it is once more becoming more trendy. For the generation that had adopted it, Millennial Pink, a dusty pink hue was named Pantone's Color of the Year in 2016.

The growth of the "Barbiecore" aesthetic this year was fueled by Greta Gerwig's impending Barbie movie, which encouraged fans to decorate their homes and outfits in every shade of pink. Between May 2022 and May 2023, searches for the term "Barbiecore aesthetic room" increased by over 1,000%, according to Axios, demonstrating buyers' desire for interiors that are as pink as possible.

It's impossible to predict which pink variation will capture our attention next, but given the interesting past of the shades that sit between white and red, pink's next heyday is surely just around the corner.