The Culture in Color | Pink in Trans Art

The Culture in Color

GWS-395 Final Project
Gallery Introduction & Essay

In ancient China, bronze objects were symbols of power and wealth. If you look at the unearthed bronze objects, you would wonder, why? They have such ugly colors that are by no means looking “royal”.

Ancient Bronze Object

The truth is, their colors shifted over the thousands of years. Modern knowledge of chemistry suggests they looked so golden in their age.

Restored Golden Bronze

The color people use means something. It is a valuable piece of culture. The color will fade if we do not preserve them well. What is behind a color? How to preserve a moment, sealed in a color? Those are the primary goals of this personal collection of trans art objects theming color “pink”.

Why Pink Is So Popular in Trans Art

Pink is a unique color that has been used so frequently by trans artists. You will see that in my collection page. But have you ever wondered why? Three interesting features make Pink so popular in trans art objects.

  • It does not exist physically (like gender).
  • It is very loud in vision.
  • It is “mysteriously” connected with gendered color norms in the trans community.

Unit 1: Physically does not exist

In physics, "color" is defined by the wavelength of light. The visible spectrum (rainbow) is a continuous distribution of wavelengths from approximately 380nm (violet) to 700nm (red). We do not see pink in the rainbow, so yes, it is not a physically existing color.

  • The Spectrum Limitation: The spectrum does not contain stimuli seen as red to bluish purple colors (pinks/magentas).
  • The "Impossible" Wavelength: There is no single wavelength of light that corresponds to "pink."
  • Pink is a non-spectral color, created by mixing red and violet light while suppressing green.

That is very interesting because “gender” also does not physically exist. Trans artists love creating things that do not physically exist. Using a physically nonexistent color to create physically nonexistent art? I love that.

Zhi (Yu) Lu Tattoo Artwork

This unnaturalness makes pink a very loud color. A very distinguishing color. That brings us to the next feature, Visual Loudness.

Unit 2: Visual loudness

Pink is a very loud color. Existing theories point out that pink appears strong because it creates a unique and rare "neural shock" in our visual system.

  • L-Cones (red) and S-Cones (blue) are strongly stimulated.
  • M-Cones (green) are weakly stimulated.
  • This creates a “double peak” neural response rare in natural light.

In the world of trans art, it is about “visibility”.

Mark Aguhar Artwork
"My work is about visibility. My work is about the fact that I'm a genderqueer person of color fat femme fag feminist and I don't really know what to do with that identity in this world. It's that thing where you grew up learning to hate every aspect of yourself and unlearning all that misery is really hard to do. It's that thing where you kind of regret everything you've ever done because it's so complicit with white hegemony. It's that thing where you realize that your own attempts at passive aggressive manipulation and power don't stand a chance against the structural forms of domination against your body. It's that thing where the only way to cope with the reality of your situation is to pretend it doesn't exist; because flippancy is a privilege you don't own but you're going to pretend you do anyway."
— Mark Aguhar

In a day and age where being visible is dangerous, trans artists still choose Pink to make trans so visible. For trans art, Visibility is life.

Unit 3: Female Color?

According to Jo B. Paoletti's research in Pink and Blue, the association of pink with girls is not a natural or ancient tradition, but a relatively recent construct shaped by fashion, psychology, and marketing.

  • Before 1900: Babies wore white — gender-neutral.
  • Early 1900s: Pink was for boys; blue was for girls.
  • 1920–1940s: Pink shifted to “feminine”.
  • 1985–present: “Pinkification” driven by marketing.
Transgender Pride Flag

This flag embodies how trans artists engage with the cultural meaning of pink. By design, the flag takes the very gendered color norms that had been constructed over the 20th century — pink for female, blue for male — and reworks them into a symbol that transcends the binary.

For trans artists, this is more than just a community symbol — it is a way of reclaiming the cultural narrative of color. Some trans artists engage with pink in this same spirit: while the mainstream culture has assigned pink as a "female" color, being trans means breaking those boundaries, and taking this previously assigned color into new spaces.

Or, interpretation can go a step ahead. Trans artists could be reclaiming this cultural concept of “pink as female color”, instead of admitting it. They are saying, we are not only breaking the boundaries, but we also do not admit the boundaries. We have our own world.

References

Bustillo, D. (2024). Transing the “Problem”: Trans Latinx Micro-Celebrity Media Activism. Feminist Media Histories, 10(4), 32–52.
Kuehni, R. G., & Wiley Online Library. (2012). Color : an introduction to practice and principles (3rd ed.). Wiley.
Lu, Z. (Yu), Hwang, R., & Lee, C. J. (2024). A Reminder of How to Live in One’s Body: Interview with Tattoo Artist Zhi (Yu) Lu [陆徵羽]. TSQ : Transgender Studies Quarterly, 11(1), 164–170.
Nash, J. C. (2008). re-thinking intersectionality. Feminist Review, 89(89), 1–15.
Paoletti, J. B. (2012). Pink and Blue: Telling the Boys from the Girls in America (1st ed.). Indiana University Press.
Sigafoos, H. J. (2019). Japanese kawaii culture and Hello Kitty as an identity marker for Asian-American women. Honors Thesis, University of Memphis.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transgender_flag