Just because it's pink ...

...doesn 't mean it's feminist.

Pink ribbons.  Pink computers.  Pink Legos.  Pink Bics.  All aimed at women.

I'm not particularly rugged; don't like sports (except boxing, after I got married to a boxer.)  I don't wear my hair long - it looks stringy, frizzy and greasy when it's long.  (It makes me look OLD when I wear my hair long.)  My nails are short; they're prone to splitting and chipping from housework and work-work.  I don't like nail polish, I use very little makeup.  I'm not really a pink kind of woman.

Pink makes me think of little girls that grace the pages of bible stories, of good little girls who never argue with their families.  Pink reminds me of little girls - always sweet, nice and beloved by everyone.  Their pink looks clean - these little girls aren't dirt magnets.

Pink is the color of the ribbons worn by Young Goodman Brown's wife, Faith.  If you haven't read the story, Goodman Brown saw his perfect bride in a witch's sabbath.  Symbolism, baby.  Pink is weak.  Pink is evil and seductive.  Pink is for the woman who's perfect - until she falls from grace, until she shows she's not just the idol on the pedestal, she's also quite human and NOT perfect.

Pink for the Susan Komen ribbons, the money going towards anti-choice groups, instead of breast cancer research.  (And speaking of CANCER, while saving the boobs is nice and all, there are other cancers which are sneakier and more deadly, and lurk in places not as nice as boobs.)

I was the little girl who liked blue.  I was grubby and stringy-haired and socially inept.  I wasn't a brain (hated most school subjects, hated my teachers, hated my peers, until I got into high school).  I was undiagnosed as bipolar II until I was in my 30's - the symptoms showed up as wild mood swings, horrific explosions of temper, cutting myself, suicide attempts ... yeah.

So what does this have to do with pink?

Pink - all girls like pink, right?  Tell that to the women who like black, brown, white, red, purple, yellow, green and blue.

At this point I can handle pink, but it's still used to stick women into little pink boxes.

I'll figure out how to tie this together (in a rainbow ribbon, ha).