Pretty in Pink

I have a strange relationship with pink.

It’s stunning, the color of cherry blossoms and cotton candy,

Of blushes and summer roses,

Of high eyes and sunrise.

Pink is humanity.

It’s our insides, our brains, it’s what we’re made of.

But our culture, ours that courts dominance,

Deems it feminine and feminine is

Weak.

Men are mocked for wearing it

Women are mocked for liking it too much

Or not at all.

Called Princesses or Barbies,

Tomboys or Dykes,

Taunted for what’s assumed to be in our brains

By the hue we slip over our heads.

Pink is

Innocence

Optimism

Nurturing

Vulnerable

Silly

Shallow

Soft

Naive

Passive

Weak...

What is the origin?

Where was this bias born

Inspiring the impulse for

Pink unicorns or blue robots?

One or the other.

Never both.

Rewind with me to the 1980s,

See the vibrant shades and permed out waves.

The beginning of the binary

Pink or blue.

Technology evolved, allowing us insight into

The sex of those still in the womb.

The markets boomed, fulfilling wishes of

Products made special for Mommy and Daddy’s little one,

And their little one

Alone.

A status quo was then required

Setting a precedent with a price tag as conclusively as a judge strikes her gavel.

But the precedent that’s set

Lingers far beyond the cradle.

Your children know what’s meant for them

The makeup with pink sparkles

Or the rocket, built with care.

The advertising is sophisticated,

Pervasive,

Visual,

Subconscious,

Always there.

These restrictions, the bonds,

They shackle all of us to someone else’s destiny,

Someone else’s identity.

Perform the script, say your lines,

Bind to us those most basic expectations,

Those placed by others which form us into

One who cannot be deeply,

Purely,

Themselves.

But it’s just a color.

Let us celebrate pink,

Celebrate its courage,

Its joy.

Who says there is no strength in softness?

Women are strong.

Strong as we embrace

Our femininity,

Our machismo,

Our beauty,

Our athleticism,

Our grace,

Our masculinity.

Strong because we can do it all.

Whatever we want.

I do not let pink be shamed for its’ femininity,

Or let femininity be shamed for being itself.

I redefine what it means to wear pink,

To be feminine,

To be

Me.