I'd never come across the idea of anti-pinkness until we opened a toyshop.
I can still remember, during our first week, hearing a dad say, "Come on son, put that
car down, it's pink - we don't like pink, do we, son?"
I assumed it was a joke, but I quickly came to realise that
some parents' fear of their boys taking a liking to anything pink is very real and deep-seated. This is not matched by a corresponding anti-blueness or anti-anyothercolourness on the
part of girls' parents - it's oddly one-sided.
This attitude in the world of toys is so much the norm, that we don't even question whether there might be anything "not quite right" about it. Unlike the Charlie Bears Fred and Ginger Golly marionettes hanging up behind the till ("Are you allowed to sell those these days?"),
the pink section in the shop, predominantly Lucy Locket toys, causes no raised eyebrows.
We are asked, fairly regularly, "Do you do a boys' version of the Picnic Basket and Teaset, or do you only have the pink one?". In fact, we do actually do one in manly straw, with cute little teddies on the cups and saucers, for those who don't want pink.
It's slightly odd that, after decades of campaigning against all forms of social inequality, we are still happy to perpetuate the idea that pink is for girls and not
boys.
But just a minute. I remember that, as a little boy, I actually didn't like pink. Not because my Mum told me not to like it, but because it was the least attractive colour
we could make by mixing paints. It ruined both the red, which was vibrant and exciting,
and the white, pure and untainted by any other colour - not that these thoughts ever consciously crossed my mind, of course. But it does make me wonder - is there something more than meets the eye to the colour pink?
Might there be something in the nature vs. nurture debate where pink is concerned?
