PINK SPOTLIGHT: An Ode to the Color Pink

When I was younger, pink was my favorite color. I always wanted to wear the pink clothing that I owned, and when my mom would buy my sister and I toys or clothes that were the same except for the colors, I would always demand to have the pink ones. I don’t even really know why, other than that I thought it was a pretty color.

But by the time I reached middle school, it was no longer “cool” to like pink, and I quickly decided that I would hate the color pink. If you liked pink, you were seen as someone to not be taken seriously, or you were seen as only liking it because it was a “girly” color and you weren’t unique or couldn’t come up with your own opinions and just followed what girls were “supposed to” like.

This mindset, unfortunately, hasn’t left us as we’ve gotten older, but the words that people use have. Now, if you like what girls are “supposed to” like, you’re considered basic. This has spiraled into the “Not Like Other Girls” phenomenon.

People in movies or books often pride themselves on being “not like other girls,” as in, they don’t like what other girls tend to like (the color pink, wearing dresses or makeup,etc.). For some reason, we are made to believe that being not like other girls is what we should strive for, and that is what makes us “popular” and what makes boys like us. 

This is an incredibly harmful view of society and what a girl “should be,” because it automatically pits girls against each other and tries to get us to compete for mens’ attention.  It makes people who might like things that girls are “supposed to” like, such as shopping or the color pink, feel like maybe they are doing something wrong and that they are somehow lesser than other girls just because of the things that they enjoy.

Let’s face it: society loves to hate teenage girls, and they love to make teenage girls hate other teenage girls. There’s always something that girls are being made fun of for, like when they like the color pink or shopping, which are the classic ones. More recently, an example that comes to mind is VSCO girls (which my younger brother had to explain what they were to me). VSCO girls are pre-teenage or early teenage girls who enjoy wearing baggy t-shirts, drinking out of hydroflasks, and wearing scrunchies around their wrists, and they reached their height about a year ago. Social media went out of their way to make fun of these girls and put them down for liking these things and “being basic.” They were teased for being just like everyone else and copying these personas. However, my question is: what did these girls do to deserve this hate? Nothing that they were doing was harming anyone, so who cares if they like similar things to one another?

When I was a young, impressionable teenager, I definitely fell into the “not like other girls” phase, where I decided I was going to hate the color pink, wearing dresses, and going shopping because I thought that those things would make me basic and make people not like me. However, as I’ve grown older, I realize how incorrect this view of femininity and likes and dislikes is. Our lives are not a competition of who is “quirkier” or “not girly,” and just because you like something or don’t like something doesn’t make you any cooler or any less of a girl. Our society is so misogynistic and focused on male attention.Young girls are made to feel like they have to make themselves different and quirky in order to stand out. This begs the question: why do we so desperately want to not be like other girls? What exactly are we gaining from that?

I can now say that I have happily come full circle and I now absolutely love the color pink, just like I did when I was younger. I paint my fingernails and toenails pink, I have a pink phone case and pencil case, and I no longer shy away from it. It’s important that we as a society break away from the internalized misogyny that surrounds us and start realizing that we are allowed to like things that other girls like. Liking the color pink doesn’t make us “basic,” it just means that pink is a pretty color. 

This article is a part of HerCampus Notre Dame’s PINK spotlight: a collection of articles to honor Breast Cancer Awareness Month.