Over the last year, some of my friends have made comments towards my colour palette, specifically my incorporation of pink into my everyday life. It made me think about my younger self, who once loved the colour pink before gradually distancing herself from it, only to reintroduce it into her wardrobe, accessories and room years later. It made me wonder whether this change was intentional or accidental, and whether there was a bigger reason behind it.
For many little girls, the association between femininity and the colour pink was instilled into them from an early age with much of society marketing toys, clothes and products characterised by pink towards girls, reinforcing the idea that pink Is inherently feminine. For me, this was initially a harmless association as I enjoyed the colour and what for me was a natural love towards its warmth and vibrancy. Yet, as I grew older, I remember purposefully distancing from the colour, long before I even recognised why. Upon reflection I wonder if this was a natural stance girls eventually took and what had taught us to do so?
Perhaps girls did not grow out of pink so much as they grew conscious of what it represented to others, as if enjoying a colour purely for personal attachment was a crime. For some reason femininity became something to distance away from in order to prove ourselves within society and to be taken seriously. Pink was no longer just a colour; it became a symbolism of childishness, weakness and inferiority. To enjoy it ran the risk of being perceived as less intelligent, capable or mature and developed into a complex from such a young age. Girls were implicitly taught that forcible rejection of pink was a way to reject these assumption as if an abandonment of a colour could appease or prove that they were more than the stereotypes attached to it.
There is a contradiction in this expectation. The same society that exclusively encouraged girls to associate themselves with pink, presenting it as integral to their femininity, later juxtaposed itself devaluing the same association claiming that attachment would only hinder them. The colour is celebrated when used to define girls yet ridiculed when women continue to embrace it. Why should girls feel the need to prove themselves by rejecting something they genuinely enjoy? Rather than questioning their attachment to pink and shifting blame on to the girls, should we not question the standards that made them ashamed of it in the first place? It seems absurd that a personal preference could become something to outgrow simply because society has decided it makes a person less worthy of respect.
The greater issue then is not the colour itself, but the way society treats works represented by the colour pink. This is particularly apparent in media, for instance the Barbie film directed by Greta Gerwig was a highly successful film that explored themes of feminism, patriarchy and female identity and empowerment, contrasting the perfection of Barbie land with real-world complexities.
However, despite the cultural impact and feminist commentary the film was frequently reduced to its superficial elements overlooking the purpose of the film, particularly due to its simultaneous release alongside Oppenheimer. With Jo Koy, a comedian who hosted the 2024 Golden Globes claiming “… Barbie is about a plastic doll with big boobies.” The remark was heavily criticised as sexist and reductive nature, with deeply misogynistic undertones. To me, this demonstrated precisely what the film was attempting to challenge: the tendency to dismiss things associated with women as trivial, childish or inherently sexual. A film with clear correlation to the colour pink was so impactful to me yet was once again judged through the stereotypes it aimed to question.
The pressure for girls to distance from pink is both unfair and unnecessary. The focus of issue should be society allowing the association with pink to diminish the people specifically girls who embraced it. There shouldn’t be this expectation or requirement to reject the colour in fear of not being taken seriously, nor should the colour carry so much weight. The issue was never the colour itself, but rather what society taught us and others to associate it with.