I was sitting on the stoop of my neighbor’s building yesterday afternoon with Rory Dog, enjoying the gorgeous weather, when a young girl of about five rode by on her pink bicycle, her pink helmet perfectly coordinated with her pink-and-black polka dot pants.
“Man, look at all that pink,” I murmured with distaste.
My neighbor looked at me as if I had blasphemed. “All little girls love pink.”
Do they? Do all little girls really love pink? Or is pink — and purple, too, I would argue — foisted upon them from birth by their mothers and a conspiracy of retailers?
I don’t remember ever loving pink. Truth be told, I wasn’t that into clothes as a kid. Mom made a lot of them for us, and I didn’t pitch fits or demand certain colors — did I?
Of course, everything is different now. A five-year old today has more social skills and awareness than a 13-year old did in my day. But if we agree that girls today are more sophisticated at an early age, does it make sense then that they would be that into pink? Wouldn’t they be drawn to black in their attempts to appear and act older?
Could it be that moms are just trying to keep their little girls ‘little girls’ as long as possible by dressing them in the babiest of colors? Or, maybe no one — little girl or mother alike — can stand up against the all-powerful Disney merchandising.
I’m just asking. No judgments.
Except…I really don’t like pink.
