I posted some pics of a Watson painted Tbird in a FB group and someone commented that it was "certainly for a girl". I was not there back then but I've seen some vintage pics of male owned cars painted in colors considered to be female nowadays like purple, violet, lavender, pink, rose, fuchsia... So I was wondering if color gender perception in the 50's and 60's was the same as recent times?
I wasn’t born until 1959, but from the many books I’ve read about hot rodding (in the US) my opinion is that there wasn’t much of a tie between gender and color (there probably is now). That being said, there were cars specifically aimed at women; they came with matching compacts, purses, etc. andromeda’s of them were pink.
The colour needs to suit the car. I wouldn't have a problem owning or driving any of the cars above, but if I was starting with an unpainted car I don't think I'd head in that direction. When my father bought his '55 Chevy brand new in '55 it was on display in the showroom in black with a coral pink roof... he wouldn't buy it until they painted the roof black.
Nah, I've seen a few new Hemi cars painted purple, they brought that color back from the late 60's when Chrysler had all the wild colors. But this is coming from a guy that drives a purple Vette !
Regardless of the color, my Hot Rods are all female. They take all my money. Punch all my buttons. I even sleep with them at rod runs. lol As far as the color goes? I mostly only like pastels on the 1950s cars.
They are all great looking cars. Everyone has an opinion of color, what they like and should not gender tag cars. Some of the nicest looking cars had a rose color against a second color that was the style of the day. One of the kids in high school had a 56 Crown Vic that was one that we all coveted . Our parents generation bought the rose colors and the world was better. I think we may have lived through the the Saturday night fever era wearing the colors of the days in puffy shirts that we would not be caught in today. Hell our wedding photos are all the guys wearing frilly shirts that were cool in the day. Colours, style and life rolls on. Smile that many of us saw it all and love that we were there.
Hello, The color for gender started way back in the birthing days. Pink for girls and blue for boys. So, if one wants to think in terms of separate colors for a boy and girl /man/women, then that is their choice. But, labeling something that others do, is not always the best thing to do. Who cares what color the room is, blue is usually dark anyway, so why make a boys room gloomy, whereas a neutral color like white steps up to the plate to allow decorating in any color and medium. Plus, you are not locking in your kid's tastes to your benefit, allowing them to decorate in any color of choice. As far as cars are concerned, there is no color barrier for gender and should stay that way. Pink sells a commodity, like pink for Shirley Muldowney in an activity that sees only men in action. So, it draws attention to the accomplishments with a flash of color. She would have done just as well, driving a black and silver hot rod or drag racing machine. Jnaki We don't live in the stone ages, although the "locked in place" seems to have pushed us back to some weird times. We cannot stifle the creativity of girls or boys with their own choices to make in this hectic world. Some will go along with the color as put to them by their parents. While others will show their own choices in their decisions. Even as parents, we have to allow the kids to make choices for themselves. Those pre-baby colors for the furniture and the baby room were just society's way for all of us to conform. Who says purple is a female color? Some of the coolest hot rods and drag racing cars from way back in the late 50s and early 60's were purple. One of the best hot rods during our time in Bixby Knolls' hot rod locale, was an all purple 1946 Ford Coupe with white tuck and roll everywhere. It stood out among all of the red, black, white and silver cars in every drive-in parking lot that it was driven to and put on a show. The owner? was as tough as one could get in my book. So no gender color separation for any of us. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...d-correct-or-not.1171185/page-2#post-13310203
In 1955 my Dad bought a brand new pink & black Ford Sunliner convert. Nothing "fem" about him...as my many (well deserved) ass woopings will attest. Did drive "ol Pink & Black" for a while in high school...and got a considerable amount of razzing because of the color.
as a teen (late 70's) i drove a pink and white 55 fairlane more door, always wanted to paint it black but never did.
When I turned 16 and got my driver's license, before I got insurance on my 55 Buick, our family has a pink 58 Buick station wagon that I drove sometimes. I got a load of shit about the titty pink wagon until I showed a few assholes it would peg the speedometer (with a long enough straight road) That pretty much ended the razzing!!
Jnaki, good post but one piece of misinformation. In the earlier days the baby clothes were predominantly white for both sexes. I believe late 19 th century colours were pink for boys and blue for boys. Late twenties an American department store realized that too much handing down of toddlers clothes was happening so they started a campaign to reverse the colours and people bought into it to the point that today we still have this idiotic perception. ( Check out the CBC radio program Under the Influence; its a highly researched program dealing with the influence advertising has on the collective attitudes on purchasing. Very entertaining and informative.) As we all know all colours are part of the visible colour spectrum of light absolutely no inherent sexual bias possible.
Couldn't even pull that one off. The only thing MORE embarrassing than "ol Pink & Black's" color, was it's performance...100K+ mile 272 Y-block/Ford-o-matic in a heavy convertible. No wonder my buddies called it "your Mom's car"
If you got a baby blue car especially a OT Miata it's an ez sell in Santa Monica or West LA..not sure about San Fransico...... I wouldn't get in one on a bet...
Hey F. My brother and I were born in 1941 and 1944, so our century was built in for us. We just followed what we were given as little kids. Blue jeans, little tyke suits, blue shirts, and my mom painted our bedroom blue for the two brothers, to grow up knowing blue was for boys. It was and continued into the teen years as blue Levis, blue suede shoes, and blue nylon jackets. Slowly, we started to pull away from blue as the years rolled by. We weren't being blinded by any color chart. My wife and I have our own ways to look at things and color is not one of them. Although one would think we like red with two 1940 Ford Sedan Deliveries painted a red shade with 4 other OT sporty cars and sedans in red. Thanks for your information as we also were in white when we were just born and for several years later. Our mom thought that what she saw as a little girl was going to be placed on us as little tykes. It did and we survived. But, these days, it is all in a different light, including those cool teenagers that will be the next generation for all of us in their ways and ideas. We cannot label them or hold them back to 1940's standards. Jnaki Our teenage granddaughter still likes pink as her mom was a stickler for that color from birth to the formative years as a pre-teen. Our son, still likes blue as we gave him that choice as a toddler. He liked blue shorts and blue/white checked Vans for his attire back then. Now, blue randomly shows up between his all black outfits. My daily color chart is black and the odd day, grey. When we used to go out before the "locked in place" days, it was black sandals. If I had to wear shoes, it was an all black leather high top Nike. So, over the years colors do change and so do ideas. It sure makes clothes washing simple as there is a pile of greys and a pile of blacks. One thing both my wife and I agree on is... no more black cars or hot rod of any style.
As I recall, the gals played the gender color game probably more strictly than the guys. It seemed like most young ladies who wanted to personalize their car favored the "fingernail polish" colors to stand apart from the male gender cars. And if they had a black car it would not be a huge surprise if it had leopard skin or something else from the Ladies Department as the upholstery.
It sure wasn't much of an issue in the mid 50's or a lot of guys would never have bought all those pink and white or turquoise or other pastel at the time cars in colors that we still see as more attractive to the ladies. Maybe that is why thy bought a pink and white 56 Crown Vic though, it attracted the gals who didn't give a rip that they weren't driving a car with a manly color. The only guys who said anything about those colors back then had a few issues with their manhood and were afraid that others like them might not see them as manly if they drove a car that color. As far as that purple Watson or Watson style car I'd say the same may apply, That is a cool custom with a cool paint color but some guys may not be secure enough in their own identity to drive it. The rest of us either love the color or just don't like that color and so be it.
I don't know about colors, but some cars are just "girl cars". I inherited an ultra-low mileage 1984 Fiero in beautiful condition from my late long-term girlfriend, and am embarrassed every time I have to drive it.
<<Retired Auto Body Shop owner , I always cringed while building a nice car ,only to have the Customers wife given the task of choosing the color .
Lots of awesome cars are all or partly pink. Remember Gypsy Rose? Awesome custom Chevy. Lots of pretty painted roses. My wife's favorite color was pink. Her favorite flowers were roses. Naturally, due partly to her, I like pink. You won't hear me talk bad about it. Along with a darker main color... something like dark maroon or brandywine or black cherry... I think I'll probably be learning how to paint roses and include a few of them here and there on my Chrysler. I'll paint them in some complementary colors... red, purple, pink. Maybe the roof in very soft pink. Even lace, maybe. In honor of her memory and to have some of her style of ambiance around me when I'm driving the car. Shorter answer... Pink will kick your ass, mf. LOL
I used to watch my Mom take a ration of shit from mechanics, pump jockeys and parts counter men when she asked a question about HER, bought and paid for by HER, BLACK 1964 4sp, 390 Mercury Marauder. The "maybe you should (ask/or let) your husband handle it" statements were usually answered with "If that asshole was half as smart as you seem to be giving him credit for, he wouldn't be my ex-asshole husband." Who knows, maybe if she'd have picked out a rose colored Marauder she wouldn't have had to put up with that shit. But since Mom viewed the world in simple black and white terms, there wasn't any room for a rose colored anything.
I got a few comments regarding a pink stripe on my dirt modified, it was for my daughter. Selling Mary Kay products?
That’s a whole lot of posts for someone to say, “It’s a matter of personal opinion.” I know guys who wouldn’t care and guys who do.
Yep, bought my wife an old sixties Dodge one time. Told her it was two tone green.............. She said "Thats not green, its gray"..............At least it wasn't pink
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