Seeing Red...Whitish Red, That Is

My favorite color is pink. I feel you must know this about me before you continue reading (or not reading, more likely) this blog. I like having pink everything. Pink with glitter. I even go so far as to crave a pink Moto Razr phone, even though I know turning a phone pink is just another gimmick designed to entice financially irresponsible young women such as myself into spending money they don't actually have on things that only they believe they really need.

So then why, you might ask, doesn't this blog display more of my pink sensibilities? One reason, my friends, and one reason only: I kind of want people to read it.

Pink. When you think of it usually, only gentle things come to mind. It's associated with dolls, pretty princesses, and really pretty much anything especially feminine or girlish. Seems pretty innocent, right? But pink has a secret, sassy side. A little hint of danger, if you will. Can you think of any more divisive color? Have you ever heard anyone vehemently exclaim, "Blue? I HATE blue!!!" Have you ever seen anyone approach green, yellow, indigo, or violet with as much dread and loathing in their face? Go to such great lengths to ensure that no hint of red, black, brown, or even puce is placed within the walls of their home? I certainly haven't.

I suppose there could be many reasons for this. Perhaps pink is simply too nice. Maybe it's just too dang pretty. Could it be that pink is that one girl who will always be that horrible combination of both prettier than you AND nicer than you? You know, gorgeous enough to evoke your jealousy, but too nice to meet you halfway on the whole archnemesis thing and too all-around good to defame anyway. You wind up hating her just because. Or it could be, as my brother once explained it, that "Pink = Girl. Girl = Fear." I think that only works for boys though. But why is pink the Girl Color anyway? People like to point out something about baby girls being dressed in pink in the hospital or something, but they dress the little boys in blue, and I don't see blue becoming a Boys Only color as a result.

This of course leads me to my greater irritation, which is the fact that it's more acceptable to be masculine than feminine in this society. I don't get why. Even if pink is doomed to be the Girl Color (which is something that I disagree with anyway as I may have implied), what's wrong with that? Frankly, I find this bias against girlishness a bit insulting. I can't even count the number of times I've heard girls around here (and elsewhere) apologize for "being so girly." Neither does there seem a worse insult to a male than to imply that he's actually female. I say, what's wrong with being a girl? Don't we need both men and women in order for our race to perpetuate?* Admit it, everybody loves girls. We fear girls, but we love them. Just like how we're grossed out by boys, but we love them too.

In the end though, pink is just a color. Just a really pretty color that will alienate people if I use it as the background color of my blog.

*Actually, with the advent of cloning we technically don't need men in order to perpetuate the race anymore. But really, what's the fun in that?