The Power, Purpose and Prosperity of the Colour Pink
Image Source, (Unsplash)
‘I believe in pink.’ Audrey Hepburn
Bimbos, Barbie, and hyper-femininity have long-been associated with the colour pink. Thought to depict weakness and heightened emotion, most teenage girls aspire to break away from the colour during their rebellion from traditional youth and stigmatised ‘girliness’. However, the colour pink has been reclaimed by the feminist movement to highlight the legitimate power and freedom that women have gained over the last century. Pink represents unity within the sisterhood, celebrating all things feminine it embraces the ‘girliness’ that women have been told for so long, signifies vulnerability and over-emotionality.
Throughout the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, the colour became symbolic of the bond between mother and child. Perhaps thought of as a symbol of the rawest emotion- love. The colour can be seen in ‘Madonna of the Pinks’ by Raphael, with a depiction of Christ giving a pink flower to his mother.
The connections between femininity and childhood are historically embedded. When combined with white tones, the colour links to innocence, with a pastel pink representing baby girls at gender reveal parties today. We see the rigid dichotomy between pink and blue everywhere in contemporary society, from greeting cards to children’s clothes. The notion that pink is for girls and blue is for boys is all-encompassing. Yet, the heavy stereotypes that confine the colours to the genders are actually fairly new.
Image Source, MFA Boston
In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, boys dressed in pink clothing as it was considered the diluted version of red, the colour of military uniforms. Curator Michelle Finamore writes about a 'late 18th-century portrait of two children, both wearing dresses,' shown in the Museum of Fine Arts Boston's exhibition, 'Think Pink': 'One is a pink brocade satin dress, one is a yellow dress, and they have these pinafores over them, and you can't tell if they're boys or girls.' Furthermore, Jo B. Paoletti, Professor at the University of Maryland and author of Pink and Blue: Telling the Boys from the Girls in America, explained that, for centuries, gender-neutral clothing was in favour. Both boys and girls were dressed in white as it was a practical matter rather than one of fashion, as the colour was easier to bleach. Paoletti found that our adoption of gender-specific colours was a very gradual process.
During the twentieth century, the emergence of gender-specific colour assignment grew in popularity and rose to an increased prevalence within society. As we recognise today, pink became attached to the female gender, partly due to the post-war period when the gender divide in society heightened with men returning from war. Throughout this time, gender division firmly entrenched itself in the public consciousness. The iconic suit donned by Leonardo DiCaprio in ‘The Great Gatsby’ is shockingly pink. The other characters speculate about Gatsby’s past, exclaiming, ‘An Oxford man! ... Like hell he is! He wears a pink suit.’
Thus, the assignment of colour depending on gender is carved into our culture. Art curator Michelle Finamore further explains, ‘we think of pink as such a girlish colour, but it’s really a post-World War II phenomenon.’
Pink was championed by stylish first ladies, including Mamie Eisenhower and Jacqueline Kennedy. It has also been used by fashion designers like Elsa Schiaparelli, whose pink clothes became a signature. Pink quickly became a colour beloved by movie stars and fashion-conscious women in the 1950s and 1960s. It embedded into popular culture, fashioned by the likes of Marilyn Monroe and Twiggy. As women were beginning to be influenced by the influx of media rising on television screens, movies and magazines, the draw to fit in with the socially acceptable trends may have attracted the growing number of women who desired to dress in pink. The colour also aligned with the overtly feminine housewife, and, overall, pink dominated the roles of women in the 60s.
Throughout the last century, pink has taken on dirty connotations. The colour belongs to heavily gendered toys. They are plastered in pink, from Barbies and playsets to thousands of chick-lit covers specifically aimed at girls. The colour pink has traditionally indicated a certain level of feminine experience. There has been a backlash against the colour, with politicians and parents debating the effect on young girls of playing with pink-hued toys, with research connecting them to career choices and body dysmorphia.
Laura Bates talks about the ‘Pinkification’ enforcing the notions that ‘women cook while men work.’ Pink has also been interpreted as inappropriate to wear in the workplace, with the juxtaposition of femininity and power causing too much confusion pink represents ‘weakness and a lack of intellectual rigour’, says style and colour consultant Angela Weyers. ‘For this reason, it is not advisable for women to wear it to work in the corporate world or the city, as they are less likely to be taken seriously.’
Yet, despite generations of women feeling as if pink has been an oppressive force, confining gendered stereotypes, a new movement of feminism encourages women to reappropriate the colour and understand that having a heightened sense of femininity is not a negative but something to celebrate. The colour is currently undergoing reappropriation by the likes of Roxane Gay in her collection of essays ‘Bad Feminist’. Gay writes about the evident contradictions of labelling herself with the ‘feminist’ word. ‘I am a bad feminist because I am … a woman who loves pink.’ Gay writes, ‘I used to say my favourite colour was black to be cool, but it is pink – all shades of pink. If I have an accessory, it is probably pink.’ Femininity and ‘girliness’ that have, for so long, been stigmatised and negatively used to confine women into a stereotypical box are now reclaimed.
In a celebration of pink, artists like Nicki Minaj work the colour to their advantage. Minaj does this by enforcing her recognisable image and through her lyrics, renowned for confronting the battles she faces as a woman in the music industry. Minaj told Fader magazine that her new album, 'The Pinkprint', would be 'the blueprint for female rappers to come', simultaneously subverting and placing herself in the lineage of Jay-Z's 2001 release 'The Blueprint'.
There is power within the colour pink and celebrating everything girly. Whether you accept it or reject it, there should be no shame, stigma or stereotyping to stop you from embracing the colour pink.
by Emma Randall
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(Also featured in Bloom I05)
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