Pink!

Who was it that decided that pink was a feminine colour? Who thought that marketing pink for girls and blue for boys was a good idea?

Because if I ever find out, even if they're dead, I'm going to hunt them down (I'll make a time machine especially) and kill them. Permanently, fatally and as messily as possible.

There are a few, ok a lot, of things that make me see red and want to kill (I so need a holiday), and pink is one of those things that does it every time.

Why pink? Because its forced feminisation of women (and men). Because its seen as a "girly" colour (and although it looks good on some people - myself included), the idea that women must like pink it is therefore pushed and hard.

Lets take this site as an example. Its the site of the Australian, National Breast Cancer Foundation. I'm all for research into finding ways to prevent, treat and cure cancer. But as they decided to adopt pink, the "colour of women" (quotes all my own), I actively avoid purchasing products from manufacturers that donate a portion of the profits from their goods to said research, because they re-brand their goods pink. I almost refused to organise the "Pink Ribbon Breakfast" at work because of the whole pink thing, and I didn't suggest that people wore pink, I couldn't bring myself to do it.

Wikipedia adds in relation to the breast cancer awareness:

Pink is the color of the Breast Cancer Awareness ribbon. Pink was chosen partially because it is so strongly associated with femininity.

And quite frankly, I think that sucks. I don't associate pink with any of the femininity that I admit to. So the National Breast Cancer Foundation loses out from me, and others who have issues with pink.

Things that have made me hate pink have included:

• Being bought pink clothing as a child, because I was female
• Being unable to find any sleepwear in any other colour than pink
• Being told that pink is ladylike

Lets start with the last one. I make no claim to ever wanting to be a lady or to have ever been a lady. Ladies have no fun... I'm a tom boy through and through. I'd much rather be outside swimming, climbing trees and riding my bike for hours as a child than being proper, polite and doing "ladylike" things, whatever they were. These days, I continue to eschew things that would be deemed ladylike, because its really not me. I'm a geek.

Going to the first one... it goes to gender identity. I may physically be female, but I don't consider myself to be female. As far as I'm concerned I sit in the middle between male and female as far as my gender identity goes. Making me wear pink states that I'm on one side of the spectrum, when I'm very happy being in the middle... a lovely combination between feminine and masculine.

The third one just annoys the hell out of me. I've declared that I don't like pink, so give me options when I do have to buy sleepwear for those times I'm sleeping at other people's houses and sleeping naked isn't an option.

Apparently before World War 2, pink was considered a masculine colour, and so when the Nazis were busy persecuting homosexuals, they identified them with pink triangles as they were attracted to other men - article here.

So how pink ended up being a female colour I have no idea... I'm just going to lay all the blame at marketers. Wikipedia states:

In Western culture, the practice of assigning pink to an individual gender began in the 1920s. From then until the 1940s, pink was considered appropriate for boys because it was the more masculine and decided color while blue was considered appropriate for girls because it was the more delicate and dainty color.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.

The thing is, I like blue. Whether I'd blue if I was forced to wear it, I'm not sure. I haven't heard from any guys who wore blue as children now hating the colour. I think there is a lot more blue in nature, and so we deal with the colour better (the sky, the sky reflected in water). Pink is the colour of insides, of some flowers (though genetically manipulated ones typically) and of some sunsets. The sky is big, flowers, insides and sunsets aren't.

I know I'm not alone in my intense dislike of pink. I have fellow sisters and brothers who also hate the colour, and that makes this rant all the fairer. I just want manufacturers and charities to rethink pink... to not classify it as the colour of women... because that lumps us all into one bucket and we're a diverse rainbow, we're not all the same.