My own experiment - little girls don't chose. Pink

It's about the associations with the colour, not the colour itself. Plus the unnecessary coding of things by gender that really don't need to be split by gender. Like science kits being coded for boys and imaginative play/crafts being coded for girls. Then things coded for girls are associated with a lesser value or worth.

So, personally, pink isn't my favourite colour. But I bought a few pink things for my boys as it's just one colour amongst many, and I'm trying to fight against the associations that come with it.

I don't think girls liking pink is the problem (or people liking to dress their daughters in pink)... everything "girly" or "for girls" being coral, magenta, baby pink, fuschia, salmon, flamingo etc is the problem.

It all hinges on choice.

I didn't know any kids for years and then all of a sudden I had a few nieces and nephews at once so I ended up going into kids' clothes shops to buy them clothes.

I was utterly horrified at how gendered it was, and I still am. I can buy lovely clothes for little boys in all kinds of colours, and I walk over to the girls' section and it is literally all pink and white. That pissed me right off. How have we ended up like this when it's 2016? No wonder little girls are often dressed in pink and attracted to pink stuff - they become completely conditioned because there isn't anything else! So I have rebelled and my nieces are all getting boys' clothes for Christmas!

Dd1 loves pink. I'm not telling her she can't have pink, I'm telling her she can have anything she wants.

I'm fed up with the idea that in order for my dd's to do well in life they have to dress 'like a boy' in 'boy colours'.

Feminism should take pink and make it the fucking power colour it actually is.

If one more arsehole buys dd2 red, purple or green - anything trying to avoid pink I'm going to refuse it.

Personally I loved pink growing up. Still do know. I've never seen it as a set of rules, I kick ass and make my own choices.

My room is currently pink, my bedding pink, my Journal pink!

I think it's only a colour, (maybe not a popular opinion) but for me it means very little beyond anything else.

My DS who is 6 also partakes in pinkness.

It's the lack of choice in shops that gets to me. If you wandered into a clothing store and the choices for boys and girls were red, yellow, green, orange, blue, pink and purple and STILL the girls all chose pink, and the boys all chose blue then it wouldn't really bother me.

But instead you get little boys dressed in mini-man clothes, and when I go shopping for my nieces the options are pink, fuscia, magenta, salmon, coral or rose and maybe purple if you're daring!

Mine does. Every time - and anything glittery and sparkly, she's like a magpie.

I fucking hate pink.

No problem dame :)

Socialisation of girls to be nice begins very very early :( it's so sad ...

Thankfully here shops still are a mass of primary colours. Long may it remain so!

Never forget the power of marketing. If we are taught that boys willies will drop off if they are put in a pink pushchair, and that girls need a pink pushchair what with being all pretty and dainty and all- Hey Presto, two pushchairs sold to the same family when 30 years ago it would have been cheerfully handed down.

OOoooo sorry Anatidae

My pink sparkly brain was not engaged!

Yes I absolutely get that dame - not contradicting that at all

I'm saying that in countries where there isn't so much pink sparkle (like where I live) the repercussions do indeed echo up - here there IS more gender equality. And it feeds back in a loop - the more equal we are the less princessy shit is wanted/tolerated and the cycle reinforces. Women/girls are not socialised into submission as much here - there is a long tradition of Scandinavian women being far more equal going back a long way

Here isn't perfect by any means, but it is certainly more equal than the uk. And the uk is more equal than many other places I have lived.

Pink is a tool which is used to socialise young females,e kind, be pretty, sparkle. The girls I work with will accept any colour though they prefer pink and purple. The boys act as if a pink number line burns them and they actively reject pink. Why is that I wonder?

Anatidaae - one exception to the rule does not dismiss a very valid point.

Starts with a pink baby grow and ends up with a smaller pay check.

T mobile and HMV are both pink.

DD's school was on the local news tonight, talking about sexism in football. Girls' merchandise is marketed as pink and glittery; bottles, whistles, sweat bands, kit bags, you name it, it's pink. I didn't realise the pink-ism until it was pointed out to me.

I don't think there's anything wrong with pink per se... the problem is when it's all that's on offer, or it comes loaded with other messages.

That's what you definitely see miles less of here - there are plenty of pink princess dress up frocks, but they're in the dressing up section, along with the doctor outfits/animal onesies, not in a solid aisle of pink aimed at girls only. I notice toys here tend to be categorised by function, so our local store has dress up/role play/construction/craft/building/books/soft toys etc and within that is a mix of stuff. It really breaks down the crap that's associated with gendering toys. Here you do see plenty of little boys pushing toy prams, and the last present I bought for little girls was ninjago Lego and a ninja turtle mask.

No bank ever uses pink in it's logo.
Nothing of "real" importance uses pink, you don't see it in the house of commons etc

Not a bank but DWF uses pink. Huge international law firm. I know of another major firm had a fuschia pink logo for years until a rebrand darkened it to red.

Home | DWF.LAW
www.dwf.law/

Lottie I said that in the context of not having, and never had, a manicure. You're picking up on that?

Liviniabox
So another example of
Pink = Smile

Associated meaning "Cheer up darling"

Coop bank obviously chose Smile = Pink for a reason (pink being feminine)....

I ♡ Scandinavia.

Pink until recently was a 'male' colour, used for boys as it was a light version of red. Blue was seen as feminine and was used for girls (long history of this in religious paintings too, Mary is almost always wearing blue.)

It's only recently this has been reversed.

For what it's worth I know several little boys who love pink, several little girls who hate it and vice versa.

I live in a Scandinavian country and there is much less pink princess culture here. Kids clothes are more gender neutral and it's frowned on to segregate toys by gender - I definitely see a difference between here and the uk in terms of the things kids like to wear and play with, so I think there is a good deal of socialisation.
I was at a party last weekend where the five year old birthday girl and her four yo brother were both in pink frocks and no one gave it a second thought.

My own little one (male) likes pink, baby dolls and trains. I think kids just like what they like.

Is cutting your nails with a metal clipper not girly now? Jesus I'm fucked I don't even know the rules!

"No bank uses pink in its logo"

Wrong! Smile, the coop bank's online arm, had a pink logo and all pink branding. It wasn't baby pink though, more magenta.