To think that liking the colour pink does not mean that you are anti-femisnist?

[poshsinglemum]

Sure this has been done before.

I am a feminist-I have a pink lap top. I like it. As a feminist I celebrate my femininity. Men have been known to wear pink too so is it even a ''girly'' colour.

I also quite like the look of that pink car cited in another thread.

I think that the pink stinks campaign is missing the point. Sexualisation of our children stinks. Pink does not equal sexy in my eye. Pink is a nice, fluffy, warm friendly colour so leave it alone!I gues sit would get tiresome to have pink everything but a touch of pink brightens my day!

The issue with pink is that it has become a signifier of 'This is for Girls', when we don't want to lay down preconceived notions of what is for girls.

The clothes are really a trivial issue compared to toy kitchens, playsets, science toys etc.

Stopping kids liking it is impossible in the short term - it's part of their culture. Labeling activities/toys with those signs IS in our power as adults.

Pink used to be the colour for boys - a diluted baby version of red - big powerful red - for big powerful virile men.

Blue was serene and virginal. Like lovely sweet little girls.

You're just out of your time.

Can't we abuse some new colours to symbolise narrow gender expectations?

emily, I have my fingers-crossed that DD will choose to become a goth. Not sure I could cope with the fake tan and nail extensions kind of teenager I see a lot of around here.

Sorry, I know this is rather lazy but it was the first link I found and I'm falling asleephere.

Pink is a boys colour

YABU. How can you not love Pink Floyd? Whose music must surely rank among the most female-friendly music of all time. Why there are hardly any males in their fanbase.

May I direct those who say 'you can clothes in all colours for girls' to this page? Yes there are other colours but they tend to be a bit 'girly' - you rarely see a lovely bright green or blue.

Now I know many may have a choice about where they shop and may find delightful little quirky boutiques. But many can't. And this is the sort of thing that many parents face when they try to buy clothing for their daughters. Peacocks is offensively pink. Adams used to be a symphony in pink and lilac - and clothes of other colours that co-oridnated with pink or lilac

Thank god for Gap!

Pink is a great colour.
I am a big fifties music fan, love the jive, lindy hop etc.
There are tons of fifties songs all about pink cadillacs. It was the status symbol that everybody aspired to in those days. Presley had a pink cadillac, and it was a car that men wanted. Presley wore pink jackets as did many of the other male rockers.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfK4K4P_W90

Oh really. Liking or not liking pink has nothing whatsoever to do with feminism.

A debate about pinkness undermines the rightful arguments about feminism.

In a similar vein - I get really wound up by ELC feeling the need to offer a 'pink' version of so many of its toys. Why can't the toy kitchen/teaset/kettle/cash register just be neutral?

Oh yes - because it's a snide way of spinning money out of parents who think that if a toy's not pink, their daughter won't play with it. I can't think of any other explanation.

MillyR, if you're still around, I've been racking my brain for the name of Shocking Pink since the discussion about feminist magazines. Used to read it way back when - I'm dead impressed that you wrote for them.

Pink - good colour for hair if bright, annoyingly stupid in pale colours for children's clothes. Ridiculous and frustrating when it comes to 'girls' and 'boys' toys.

Unfortunately my experience of Spanish girls clothes is that clothes can be impossibly impractical & frilly without being ubiquitously pink - dd wore hand-me-down boys clothes for her first 2 years until we moved to the UK.

I think there's a difference between pink and pinkification. I'm currently wearing a magenta cardigan and a pink, olive and white checked cotton skirt. DD went off to preschool in a raspberry-coloured long-sleeve T-shirt and a pair of brown leggings.

Outside of a laundry crisis, though, there's no way that I'd dress her in head-to-toe pink-and-purple, though, because that would be pinkification (and it would look horrible, too - it's hard to get different shades of pink to match each other, plus since when did pink go with purple?).

Pinkification in my view is about everything having to be pink (DD's anorak is brown, from the boys' department of H&M. She has fair hair and it looks fantastic on her). And about gratuitous glitter and flowers, and the fact that apparently only boys like sailing.

As the article says, a lot of it is about getting parents who have children of each sex to part with more money - but also parents of one/just girls, since there are a lot of things that they Have to Have because they are Girls. Manufacturers are taking preschool children's interest in sex identification and running with it so that it goes way beyond its natural boundaries.

A quick glance round H&M suggests that you're supposed to stop liking pink by the time you're 8 (after which you start wearing even uglier clothes, apparently). But the damage is done - you've already been given the message that GIRLS ARE VERY DIFFERENT FROM BOYS, and in the absence of significant influences to the contrary, that's going to stay with you.

I'm with you. whilst I get the point of pinkstinks, I think its over proportionate. dont go to Toys R Us then, dont buy pink shit that says "daddys little angel", SHOP AROUND FFS!!!! . I still think some little girls look lovely in pink, fair enough!

It's understandable that in the 50s pink was a mans colour, until ten years before it had been a boys colour! It's just like men these days liking blue and thinking it's masculine.