This is a comment by Ric E on the post “Our words influence the way we look at the world. For example: calling pink a ‘girly’ color.”
Ric E said:
“I recently went shopping at one of the big box stores and decided to browse the fishing equipment aisle looking for sales. With my wife by my side I turned around and spotted a rather nice looking, well-made, pink fishing rod. My reaction was ‘Isn’t that great. This should make more girls amenable to fishing.’
“My wife’s reaction was a resounding “Bullshit!” And she walked out of the store obviously upset and angry. How could this be? I felt confident that this was a good thing and that it would promote fishing among the young girls. Her response to me was why would a little girl need a pink fishing rod to like fishing? Haven’t we forced enough differences on our girls? Isn’t this just a separate but equal problem? We don’t have light blue fishing rods for boys to increase their interest.
“It took a while but I finally saw her point. As long as we put our children into these categories will they ever achieve equality? And doesn’t this apply to other categorization as well? Why do we insist on labeling our girls with pink frilly things? Doesn’t this lead to a world where they are treated as pink frilly things instead of equal members of society?
“Enough!”
Photo credit: Flickr / Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
About the Editors
The thing is though, little girls DO like pink. If people were saying “girls MUST have a pink fishing rod” then fine, get angry, but choice is never a bad think. The same with bikes and phones and all the other things painted pink to market at girls. No-one is forcing them to buy them, but little girls (not all of them, but enough for it to be worth offering the choice) go for the Barbie pink option and yes, like it or not, this dose get little girls trying new things.
I totally agree! I love purple and pink! I love “girl” colors, and my kids can pick what colors they like too. Choice is a great thing. I have a purple-pink loving daughter and a blue-red loving daughter. My little brothers favorite color growing up was hot pink. I think it still is.
And I have one of those pink tool kits. Love it.
You know what? When I was a little girl, I had a bright neon ORANGE fishing rod. And I loved it.
Yes, a lot of girls like pink. But that doesn’t mean that we have to make absolutely everything pink in order for girls to like it. Trust me on this, when too much of your stuff is one color, you get sick of that color pretty quickly. I still can’t stand powder-pink hues at all.
The secret to getting any little girl or boy to do something fun is to talk it up. Make it sound as exciting as it is. “It’s in my favorite color” isn’t going to do that on its own. Otherwise, I would never have enjoyed sports, Batman action figures, non-pink Legos, or my brother’s Matchbox cars.
Isn’t there already some pink involved with fishing? The color of some worms sometimes, the color of wild salmon meat, the color of some of the innards when you clean the fish, the pepto you drink when you eat fish that wasn’t totally cooked, etc.
P.S. Does the kit come with a pink knife for cleaning the fish? A big pink club for knocking out the really big ocean catches? A big pink hook for getting the tuna onto the boat?
I’ve never liked pink. I had to grow up getting toys DESPITE them being pink. Girls don’t have that choice when EVERYTHING is pink.
Boys get to have green, red, black, blue, orange, yellow and any color under the sun (as long as it’s not pink because it’s for girls)
Girls- you get pink, pink, purple, and pink.
It’s not that soo many girls like pink as it is more easy for boys to avoid “girly” things when they are so easily color coated!
This, so much. I think one of the reasons I like the Monster High dolls (for teen and adult collectors, not so much for impressionable kids) is because the box they come in is BLACK, not Barbie pink, and the use of pink is limited to monsters where it makes sense (like the succubus/Cupid girl, can’t remember her name). I swear, 90% of the Barbie clothes I had were either pink or white–and after a while, you want other colors too!
Pink packaging. Pink toys. Pink bike helmets. Pink rollerblades. Pink bicycles. Pink comforters and sheets. Pink, pink, pink. Why do we need that much pink? Why are girls treated as weird if they like other colors better?
Of course, I also don’t think there should be such a thing as “girls’ toys” and “boys’ toys.” They’re TOYS. You play with them to have fun. Why are we telling kids of either sex, “oh, those toys are off-limits for your half of humanity because your genitals are different” instead of “sure, if that’s the toy you want to play with, go have fun!” It’s bad enough that my mom, who remembers hating Barbie to death as a girl, tried to get me to like playing with Barbies when I was a kid (which failed spectacularly) simply because in our society, girls are supposed to like Barbie.
Well, it’s all fun and games until someone put’s an eye out!? The point that is hidden from view, speaks to socialization and who does it. In my personal experience as a progressive male primary care giver ( I grew up with that term and I like it better than SAHD) I lost the Barbie fight, hands down… to momma. To add injury to insult, one late Christmas Eve, I had to drive to Toy’s R Us ( I was the only legal driver in the house) after work, to get my daughter a Barbie that she had to have or should I say that her mother wanted her to have. This was after an agreement was struck that allowed me stick to my anti Barbie principals and never be required to participate in Barbie mania. Ok, I a swear I’m done venting.
What was important about the experience is that it solidified, in my mind, (finally) that MEN and women acculturate children and each other. This was a revelation in thought at the time considering that hysteria ( yes, I meant that ) over body image, over the sexual objectification of women and the role of men in those processes, dominated the public sphere. Talk shows, news, plays, books were all spouting the same narrative which could be summed up in one phrase, ” It’s all his fault!” When I found out that wasn’t true, it didn’t matter much, which reminded me of another truism, feminism has been majorly wrong in the past and will be again in the future.
That’s pretty sad about the Barbies. No one thought to ask your daughter whether she actually liked the dolls or not?
Because some girls just don’t like Barbie and I speak from experience that trying to force Barbie on a girl who doesn’t like her is a waste of time and money. I still resent my mom doing that to me a little.
@The_L says : My daughter inherited her love for Barbies from her mother, a woman of color who had issues with men of color dating or marrying out of their race and with body image. Go figure. I got my “revenge”, my daughter played three sports, which I believe helped her develop a ton of personal confidence. A trait that often put her at odds with other girls, who seemed to revel in getting attention for being sensitive, indirect and whiny.
Can’t resist posting what I wrote for Huffington on this topic!
Ten Reasons I will Not Be Buying a Pink Fishing Rod http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lori-day/pink-marketing_b_1429973.html
So, those are my views, for women and girls.
I don’t see the connection. We don’t treat women as an unequal because we associate them with pink but because we think, and feel and treated them as so. If we treated women as an inferior, it won’t matter what color a woman wears or choose, or if we associate them to blue. Just knowing she is a woman would make us treat her unequally if we believe that they are lesser.
We don’t need to stop associating women with pink colors, what we need is to change our belief. It is all in the mind, our belief .