I see that I shall never think
In lovely shades of girlish pink.
A pink whose colour’s oft expressed
In how sweet baby girls are dressed;
A pink that advertisers say
Should mark the things with which they play;
A pink that tints the young girls’ toys
And segregates them from the boys’
The experts say I’ll just make do
With boring bits of boyish blue
A fool like me can hope we’ll find
A future that is color-blind
With sincere apologies to Joyce Kilmer.
Appropriate video, after the jump:
I’d love a color-blind future too. As an artist, I’m personally a fan of all colors when they’re used correctly, and I feel bad for the men who are excluded from using/wearing pink. It has a place in color theory, everyone should get to use it!
Also, I had never actually listened to the lyrics of that song before (or seen the video), but wow, now that I have, Pink gets massive respect from me.
yeah, i agree. i like Pink even more now. i also liked the “Die Hipster Scum” shirt she had on during the treadmill scene.
Same here! I can’t believe I missed this video when it came out.
That video actually seems kind of problematic to me — so, what, bulimia and other eating disorders are only for “stupid girls?” The alternative to spray-tanning oneself orange is the Presidency? a little girl who plays football is inherently more valuable/intelligent than one who prefers dolls?
I know what Pink’s going for, of course, but it should be possible to evoke that image of the woman who is intentionally neglecting intellectual pursuits in favor of ones she feels will be sexier/patriarchally-approved without also dismissing small dog owners, feminine women, and hip hop dancers.
It’s my belief that special girly pink versions of otherwise universal toys and baby clothing are just the manufacturers’ way of halving the probability of something that has outlived one child’s attention span or particular stage of growth but is still otherwise serviceable, being passed onto a younger sibling.
The manufacturers are only doing it to maximise their profits; but it’s having an undeniable, detrimental side-effect on the people who help them make those profits in the first place.