Just curious really but what do people think about the 'Pink Stinks' campaign?
"Parents are being urged to boycott shops selling pink toys and gifts by a campaign group.
Pinkstinks says the "pinkification" of little girls causes them to choose less challenging careers and pass up opportunities as they grow up."
Personally, I believe there's a place for pink. My daughter adores pink, but she also like yellow, lilac, blue. She lives in a pink room, pink walls, pink carpet, pink bedding, pink blind. Her favourite colours are orange and pink.
I often let her choose her own things and sometimes she loves pink and other times she doesn't. For instance, she recently chose two dresses - one super pink with brown dots and the other turquoise, brown, red and white. The choice was hers. I think that is important.... 'choice'.
Many girls naturally gravitate towards pink fluffy girly things and in all honesty, what is the harm? Pink is a fun, happy and often innocent colour. Is there an issue with girls being girly? Does it make them into doormats? Does it encourage them to fulfil a pretty and submissive gender role? No. Thing Two loves pink....and cars...and heavy metal (and dead things). She's diverse.
To a child a colour is just that, a colour. Any symbolism and connotations attached to it are purely manufactured by adult minds and then impressed upon children.
The thing that irks me however is unnecessary pinking of things. If you look in say the Argos catalogue now you will see a baby gym...then a pink one. A push-along walker...........and a pink one. A bouncy chair............and a pink one.
The usual ones are bright, cheerful, unisex and great. I think it's unnecessary to foist pink on things that don't need it but there's nothing wrong with having specific pink stuff. There isn't however a blue walker for instance, so it would seem the manufacturers deem the child friendly (unisex) one for boys.
So what if a little girl adores fairies and princesses...... it's childhood. Why shouldn't she? Why should we dictate what our children can and can't and even should and shouldn't like when it comes to something like colour? What's wrong with just letting them decide? So what if a little girl likes pink and dolls and fairy wings...and likewise so what if she prefers a firemen costume and bob the builder toys?
I think sometimes parents try too hard to conform to stereotypes and likewise some try too hard to navigate their children away from them. Is either right? Aren't both parent pressing their beliefs on their child? Where's the room for child choice and organic growth? Is the sexism in the pink or actually within the anti-pink?
Labels, stereotypes and connotations are adult concepts. An item, object or colour only has as much meaning as you invest into it. A cross to a Christian is symbolic, a cross to an atheist might just be another shape. Pink is just that...a colour.
A child doesn't know about any significance it has in later life and shaping a person; it is the adults around the child who have these ideas and imprint them upon children. Is there anything that wrong with a girl wanting to be girly? Should we encourage them all to wear dungers and wellies and spit through their teeth just to go against archetypal femininity?
Let them wear pink I say (or blue, or yellow or purple or orange). A child is a sum of many parts, a colour alone will not make them (or break them)
There really are much more pressing and potentially damaging issues then colour.
Children make no association with colour and their place in society, so maybe the problem is grown, cultivated and spread by adults making an issue where actually there probably isn't one.
Let them make their own minds up and just let them 'be'.
I think there's a fine balance between over thinking our children's childhood and under thinking it, both of which can disrupt the magic and innocence of childhood.
Welcome to the often inane ramblings and questionable sanity of a 30-something(ouch), semi-crunchy mum of three and a glimpse into our life as a party of five. We're noisy, grumpy, sarcastic, boisterous, heathen and if only to each other, loveable.
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Twitter: @mamaundone http://www.pinkstinks.co.uk/