Does Pink Really Stink?
I just read on the NYT Motherlode blog an article titled "Boycotting Pink Toys for Girls" about a British online campaign started by two moms-Pink Stinks-which just launched an effort to boycott the Early Learning Centre, a large toy retailer in Britain, during the Christmas season because of their ¨pinkification¨ of girl´s toys. They know there are many toy outlets that abide by this practice, but believe the ELC is the worst offender since they market themselves as educational.
Yes, they have a point that the role models being perpetuated by marketers and retailers are too narrow and simplified to define who our girls really are. However, I´m not sure that pointing our fingers towards retailers will result in us raising strong, secure and powerful women. Note that I didn´t always think this way. For a long time I would pinch my nose at the site of pink and its derivatives because I felt pink was the first step at becoming a frivolous, self-centered, image-obsessed girl. Think Paris Hilton.
Ever since we found out three years ago that we were expecting a baby girl we got on the mind set to avoid anything frilly, cutesy, and pink. I didn´t mind a fuchsia, hot, mexican-rose pink, but could almost vomit by the site of the soft baby pink abd ruffles that surrounded baby girls' products. I even went to the point of requesting on my baby shower invitations that "Please, no pink gifts." I knew I would still be bombarded by pink, but wanted to minimize the impact as much as possible, while sending a message that we were not raising "that type of girl." Whatever that means.
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