I have never been especially fond of pink. To me it separated the girls from the tomboys and I was most definitely the latter. It was girls being unoriginal, mothers locking their children into gender roles (unless on boys, I approve of pink on the male segment of the population), and, as Dooce says, ” a tool of the patriarchy to preserve gender inequality”. Pink on men can be very sexy, not least because it takes balls (or as I like to say, lips) to wear if you’re not in Europe, European, or gay.
In other news, I had a brush with breast cancer: just close enough to change my lifestyle, not close enough to get a tattoo. So I’m very into early detection and openness about the subject in general. Guys like breasts, girls have breasts, this is a subject no one should shrink from (incidentally, I think the same thing about prostate cancer and hope that it starts to get similar press).
But I’m still not a fan of pink. And it really drives me nuts that people buy anything pink, especially in October, because they think it shows that they care about breasts. That said, I lust for a red iPod so maybe this makes me a total hypocrite.
I had recent occasion to peruse the Susan G. Komen foundation’s website and be impressed, once again, at the amount of pink. Shouldn’t that be the color of cervical cancer…? Personally, I think our dollars would be better spend reducing our children’s sugar intake and the medical establishment’s reliance on radiation to detect and treat a disease first discovered because it was caused by radiation. This might make me less of a feminist, but I like to bring up prostate cancer and male genital mutilation whenever the pink equivalents are brought up. This is a backwards, barbaric world we live in, but all people deserve cures, health, and acknowledgment.
I hope that a cure for breast cancer is found. I hope a cure for AIDS is found. And maybe marketing them to the public as “cool” causes is the way to get the kind of money necessary to realize these goals (hey, it worked with me and the nano, neh?), but I hope that cures for people with uncool diseases are found as well. The only reason I care so much about breast and prostate cancer is because they touch me more closely than AIDS…or leukemia. But we only have so many colors in the spectrum. Will brain cancer claim gray or will sickle cell anemia have to wait until AIDS is cured before it can have red? I suppose what disgusts me is the marketization of philanthropy. But I’m in no way immune.
In the mean time, I shall sip my tea, use my new jump drive (which I love, if Hawk is reading this 
), wearing my Alias sweatshirt and Gap jeans, and realize that what really pisses me off is my own hypocrisy.
9 responses so far ↓
1 nee // Nov 27, 2006 at 5:37 pm
I love pink.
I don’t like rubber bracelets for causes. Rubber bracelets from the mid 80s madonna era are fine.
I also don’t like magnetic ribbons. David Sedaris was in town recently and had this ribbon on the book signing table next to him. Amen to that.
Oh, and I’m a hypocrite too. I’m sure there’s crap I do that’s incongruent with my words.
Nonetheless, I have a really, really difficult time promoting awareness of a health issue with products that that contribute to health issues thanks to the polluted factories they’re made in and the landfills they end up in.
As for pink, this is my latest pink purchase I’m waiting on. Read the description.
2 Miko // Nov 27, 2006 at 6:42 pm
amen to magnetic ribbons and rubber bracelets: Lance Armstrong is cool, is a great role model, but does he really need his own jewlery line? I guess, if you’re buying something anyway, you might as well buy something that will benefit a cause: if I need a new iPod (“need”), how ’bout red? I’m still losing money and getting a device, ppl are helped as an afterthought…
I just got this so while it’s not pink, I’m clearly not adverse to “girly” when it suits me (the death bow, nee? so cute!). I suppose that was really grinds my coffee is that I like this pink object. It’s not grey (which would match my decor but is boring), it comes pre-loaded with feminist music (huzzah!), and it’s super convenient (I just lost my data stick: sadness is me). So it’s pink (= hate) but totally geeky (= love) and somehow, love always wins. :-p
I’ve recently decided I need an antenne ball, the better to identify my car with (somehow, the vanity plate doesn’t do it for me until I’m super close). Trying to decide which direction to sell out: Mickey Mouse or Jack in the Box…?
3 John // Nov 27, 2006 at 11:15 pm
Miko, looks like we cross-posted!
One of the great tensions in my life: style v. substance. I love performance and expression and am acutely aware of my penchant for both. So part of me wants to go hippie and wear the same t-shirt and pair of jeans for weeks on end, and then the other part is out buying a pair of colorful Cons (now owned by Nike) to match my laptop bag. I’m drawn to great design, and am excited when art meets good causes. But how many great causes go unnoticed?
Miko, I’m with you on the pink-aversion. CatGirl (who has her own tomboyish ways) and I seem to share color preferences: dislike for pink, love for teal, sea-green, chartreuse. We also share a strange affinity for Emily the Strange.
I find other ways to gender-bend, through knitting (in earth tones), holding tea parties, carrying bags that look suspiciously like purses. Caroline (K.) promised to buy me a “This is what a feminist looks like” t-shirt, and I’m going to hold her to it. You listening, Caroline!?
Nee, awesome shirt! Though this one seems to sum up Miko’s post perfectly.
4 John White // Nov 28, 2006 at 10:33 am
Er, Lance Armstrong doesn’t need his own jewelry brand, it’s the Lance Armstrong Foundation that benefits from the yellow wristbrands. To the tune of over $20M.
5 Elise // Nov 28, 2006 at 10:58 am
Hmmmm….I have been debating whether to admit this or not, but for the sake of candid honesty, I LOVE the color pink. Green is my favorite color, but pink is absolutely number two. I’d never ever buy pink furniture or decorate my home, car, or office in pink – but I love the color. I have a pink Ipod cover, I love pink clouds in the sunrise, I look forward to pink cupcakes on Valentines Day, I have white tennis shoes with pink stripes, and I’m rather fond of pink cosmopolitans. I don’t think this makes me an anti-feminist or anything of the sort. If my husband claimed he loved pink, he’d be assumed to be either gay or a feminist going against society’s ways, so I think my like of the color should be viewed the same way. I was a bit of a tomboy growing up even though I liked pink.
On a bit of a tangent, since we’re venting about such issues, who came up with the word “tomboy”? Why does a girl who likes to kick a soccer ball instead of dress a barbie have to be labeled a word that infers she is like a boy? Can’t she just be a girl who likes soccer? A man who is a good cook isn’t called a “Suegirl” or anything silly like that, is he?
That being said, I agree with the comments before me and I wish that pink wasn’t labeled a “girl” color. I wish we didn’t have to pour so much money in to marketing the cause in order to obtain funding for breast cancer research – wouldn’t it be great if we would all just give without having to be campaigned? We could devote more funding to research and less to marketing. It’s too bad that we have to be lured into legitimate charitable giving.
Despite the fact that I like pink, like soccer, hope for a cancer cure, and hate being called a tomboy, I’ve still go my own hypocrisies. I think people should carpool and drive less but I hate the inconvenience of carpooling and driving less. I wish people in other countries were paid enough and that children were in school but I’m wearing Gap jeans, too. I wish the holidays weren’t so commercialized and yet I love the mall at Christmas and look forward to shopping for that perfect gift. We really are living in a material world, eh?
6 nee // Nov 28, 2006 at 12:07 pm
Elise, perhaps the male equivalent is a metrosexual.
Everytime I see your name The Cure’s “Letters to Elise” gets stuck in my head. It’s a bit of a mournful song. I need a new Elise connection! And I’m not sure if that’s better or worse that the fact that everytime I see this blog title I hear Bruce Springsteen’s “I’m on Fire” in my head. lol
7 Miko // Nov 28, 2006 at 3:55 pm
nee (#6): whenever I see your name, I think of the Knights Who Say…
Elise: I’m glad someone likes pink…and I like pink clouds, too, so I guess it’s not everything pink that I don’t like :-p And I agree, I was thinking about “tomboy” recently: shouldn’t it be “tomgirl”? or “janeboy”? something that indicates that the tomboy is, in fact, a girl…and I’m with you on the carpooling thing…I found a woman to carpool with at my old office and kept thinking, “it’s too inconvenient this month because I have things planned…I’ll start next month”. But next month always ended up a month away.
8 nee // Nov 28, 2006 at 6:28 pm
Miko (#7), I know, I know. But it’s really nay.
9 Miko // Jan 21, 2007 at 1:09 pm
update: not just for charities anymore, pink is your team color if you have a vagina no matter what!
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