Our Other Blog: Two Sisters and Two Points of View
by Taswegian1957 & Human59
I have a lot of pink things in my photo archive. Pink flowers of course, roses, tulips and this favourite one of massed daisies.
How could I do a pink post and not have Barbie?
This is an old but favourite photo that I took at Salamanca market. The stall holder had colour coordinated the stands of sun hats.
Some pink knitting cotton. This is a nice weight yarn to use for fashion doll clothing as it doesn’t look too bulky on them.
I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with the colour pink. I don’t dislike the colour. I like it, especially in nature. A walk around my garden would easily show that.
No, I dislike the way that pink is used to represent women and girls all the time. It’s as if we can’t be happy in any other colour.
When a woman takes part in a predominantly male sport like motor racing you will often find her team in pink overalls or the car is pink. That wouldn’t be annoying if it wasn’t nearly always the case.
Pink is used a lot to promote women’s issues. Breast cancer for example. In Australia, everyone knows The McGrath Foundation who raise money for breast care nurses, a very worthy cause let me say. The organisation was founded by Jane and Glenn McGrath in 2005 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Glenn was a well known and popular cricketer so the Sydney Test Match is always their biggest fundraiser for the year. The players wear pink caps, the commentators were pink ties or even pink suits and the crowd is generally a sea of pink. Again I don’t think this is a bad thing.
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I just sometimes wish someone would come up with a different marketing idea that’s all. Apparently, it wasn’t always this way. I didn’t know this but up until the 1940s pink was generally associated with boys and blue with girls.
While these days pink is seen as a more feminine color, it wasn’t always that way! In an article from Smithsonian.com, it says that in 1908, “The generally accepted rule is pink for the boys, and blue for the girls. The reason is that pink, being a more decided and stronger color, is more suitable for the boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is prettier for the girl.” It was around the 1940’s that these colors switched.
Nearly all girls toys incorporate pink. People go on about diversity but the recent 60th Anniversary Barbie was literally pink from head to toe. Pink hair, pink outfit right down to stocking and shoes. She looks like a lipstick! Does anyone remember when Barbie was not associated with pink? No? well, I’m older than she is so I do.
So as I said, I don’t dislike pink; I do dislike how commercialised the use of it has become. There is a whole psychology around colours in marketing. I don’t like it because I don’t like being manipulated.
I am not a huge fan of pink usually. It is a pretty colour, don’t get me wrong but I get tired of it being associated with girly things all the time. Everything Barbie is pink, and it’s rather a loud shade for my taste.
I do love pink in nature though and occasionally I see other pink things that I like to photograph. Here are some of them.
This week Cee’s Challenge is to find some pink or magenta flowers. I didn’t find any magenta but I did have a lot of pictures of pink flowers. There is apple blossom, nectarine blossom from the old tree, daisies at a city park and a rose and a bonsai plant from the Hobart Flower Show. Last of all tulips from my visit to the “Bloomin Tulips” the festival held at Wynyard on the north west coast of Tasmania every year. I went three or four years ago now.
I chose an old photo for this challenge. One of my Flickr albums is called “Pink Is Not My Favourite Colour”. It’s a bit of a joke title because of my frequent complaints about how it’s assumed that all women and girls want everything pink. I do like pink in nature but I rarely wear it. I could however, appreciate this display of pink hats I saw at Salamanca Market one sunny day.
However, I then realised that I had used it before for the “Pink” challenge some time ago. Not wanting to be a lazy poster here are some more hats. My Sweet Sue doll received this outfit complete with elaborate hat after I found it at the Doll Show.
The Red Hat Ladies, marching in the Hobart Christmas Pageant.
