Pink is for girls

[girlyswot]

So, I like pink. You may have noticed. I always have, though for a while I pretended I didn't because it wasn't cool.

Anyway, despite my predilection for the colour, I do not believe that absolutely everything must always be produced in pink. Least of all, books. So although I very much approved of most of Jacqueline Wilson's choices of top children's books, I was somewhat shocked by the amount of pink and sparkly.

My editions of her choices are:

Ballet Shoes: paperback, sort of beige, I think
A Little Princess: paperback, nasty mustard yellow and black
Little Women: hardback, red
The Railway Children: paperback, orange with photo on the front
The Family from One End Street: salmon pink (this one looks quite similar to the current edition)
What Katy Did: hardback, red
Mary Poppins: hardback, green

Many of these were passed down from my mother. None were chosen by me in a bookshop, as far as I remember. All were (and still are) very much loved. I recently lent my copy of Mary Poppins to a friend who is seven and just starting to enjoy reading 'proper' books. She didn't seem to mind that it wasn't pink either. Because, after all, it's what's inside that counts.

Comments

[petitecrivan.livejournal.com]

The thing that annoys me with pink is that recently Disney started making things with all the Disney Princesses dressed in pink outfits. I prefer their normal colors, thanks! Too much pink.

[white_hart]

I loathe the current obsession with everything for little girls (and for grown women, too!) being pink, and such bright, sugary pinks too - like candyfloss or bubblegum, as if it's equating femininity with insubstantial yet cloying sweetness. Pink books just say 'this is a frothy girls' book, it's not something you should take seriously'. And there are editions of Jane Austen that have been given this chick-lit treatment, as well as the children's classics (thereby also guaranteeing that no boy would be seen dead reading them).

I also really hate the way there are pink phones and laptops marketed at women as though we were all far too stupid and shallow to care about anything but the colour.

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

Errm, I have a pink laptop. Should I hang my head in shame?

[white_hart]

Well, not if you like it! It's the way that pink things are marketed as being "specially for girls" that gets up my nose - I like pink, and I think coloured computers are fun in themselves.

[girlyswot.livejournal.com]

No! I nearly got a pink one but was tempted instead by a charcoal grey one with tiny light grey flowers all over it. People in airport security regularly comment on how pretty it is and even computer geeks in shops have been known to admire it.

[white_hart]

Oh, that sounds lovely. I want a new laptop and would very much like a flowery one.

[girlyswot.livejournal.com]

It's a Sony VAIO from a couple of years ago. I really wanted the chocolate brown version of the same pattern but it didn't come in the model that I wanted to buy. They grey is pretty, though.

[girlyswot.livejournal.com]

I also really hate the way there are pink phones and laptops marketed at women as though we were all far too stupid and shallow to care about anything but the colour.

I don't know what I think about this. Part of me wants to say yes, of course, but the other part thinks that actually, everything should be made as beautiful as possible and that there are lots of wonderful colours which are not black or grey.

[white_hart]

Oh, I think that the more things are available in colours other than black and grey the better, but mostly the choice seems to be black/grey for men, because they want SRS ELECTRONIX, and then girly pink for women because they're just featherheads who only care about the colour. Although, to give them their due, some companies do offer a wider range of colours - iPods, for instance, or Dell laptops (I suspect my laptop will be a bright red Inspiron Mini if I have any say in it).

[girlyswot.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's true. Though I will admit to being the kind of person who generally cares more about how things look than how they function. When I got my first car, I was so excited that it was navy blue because that meant it would go with everything in my wardrobe.

[white_hart]

My first car was terracotta with turquoise waves down the sides, but mostly what I cared about was that it had four wheels and an engine and actually moved ;-)

I agree that, where possible, things should be beautiful as well as functional, though, just that there are a lot more ways to be beautiful (and I am now reminded of William Morris's 'Have nothing in your homes that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful' and thinking how fabulous a Strawberry Thief laptop would be).

[girlyswot.livejournal.com]

Oooh, yes. I want a Morris laptop too, please!

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

I don't care for the pink-and-sparkly-for-girls idea either but...
as you point out The Family From One End Street had a pink cover very early on. So did Ballet Shoes. I have a hardback with a green dustwrapper. The first Puffin edition was also green but the copy I have from the 1950s is definitely pink. I also have a Streatfeild book called The Years of Grace, a sort of 'growing up' anthology for girls, which has a pink dustwrapper. So there's nothing new about it.
I have that very same edition of A Little Princess!

[megan29.livejournal.com]

Ha, I have such a schizophrenic position on this "issue"! My natural taste is to dislike this color. But vendors' propensity of making pink THE girly color pushed my dislike all the way to abhor. I've shocked a real estate agent once, when she showed us a house with a very pink little girl's bedroom. She thought it would be a strong selling point. I disabused her mighty fast. And I hope you won't take this personally, Ros, since the reverse is also true: you would really dislike my color scheme, and I don't hold that against you. *g*

That being said, pink is the color I look best in. So while in general I can't stand seeing it around me, when it comes to clothes, I dress almost exclusively in pink and its relatives. I mitigate this in my mind by the very reasonable argument that I don't see the colors I wear. *g*

As for pink books, they look ridiculous in the bookstore, but when I read one, I never notice the cover. I'm not sure if I would buy one, though.

[tdu000.livejournal.com]

I think that I had that edition of A Little Princess too. The picture was one of those scratchy pen and ink ones that needed a lot of work to decipher what it was actually supposed to be. I'm not that keen on pink book covers, or any bright colours really. I like books to be restful in appearance rather than brights and cheerful. I suppose the problem with children's books as it labels the book immediately as being for girls and not all girls, just the ones who would identify themselves with the colour. My daughter would refuse to read a book because it had a pink cover.

On a non-pink book - I've nearly finished End of Term (not pink) and am enjoying it very much. Thank you.

[dogstar101.livejournal.com]

Shirley Hughes did the cover for that edition of A Little Princess. An interesting woman.

[tdu000.livejournal.com]

I met her! My mother took me to a children's book festival at Harrogate when I was young. Afterwards she said she would buy me one book and I chose one illustrated by Shirley Hughes because she was the speaker I liked the most. So we bought it there and she talked to me and signed the book.

[dogstar101.livejournal.com]

That's really cool. I recommend her autobiography 'A Life Drawing,'

[alkari.livejournal.com]

I love the sound of your laptop colour scheme, which would be both pretty and stylish.

I am not a "pink" person, and really never have been. Most shades of the colour don't suit me to wear and I could never, ever live with a pink colour scheme in my home. Psychologically, I understand that soft pink rooms are supposed to be a soothing colour for disturbed people, but living in one would actually send me into either a towering rage or deep depression!

I object to the "pink for girls" mentality because it assumes all females have the same tastes, and that there are no women - or little girls- who like or prefer other colours. Why not bright red, a cheerful yellow or rich purple? Why not pretty greens and blues?

[rhetoretician.livejournal.com]

You know, I haven't read any of those books. Not even Mary Poppins or Little Women. I mean, I've seen at least two different film adaptations of LW, but never read it. And of course I've heard of them all my life, I know they're reputed to be wonderful. Really, I should.

[girlyswot.livejournal.com]

Ken, that's so sad. They are all quite, quite wonderful.

[dogstar101.livejournal.com]

I think he should perhaps start with The Railway Children. What do you think, Ros?

[girlyswot.livejournal.com]

I think he would love The Railway Children. Don't all Dads love The Railway Children?

[dogstar101.livejournal.com]

It's a long time since I read Little Women, but I have a feeling The Railway Children has more dad appeal!

[girlyswot.livejournal.com]

I agree, although it's interesting that both feature families with largely absent dads.

[dogstar101.livejournal.com]

I have this conviction (based on nothing but nostalgia really) that the last decent decade for children's book jacket design was the 60s (and maybe hanging on into the 70s). I have some really beautiful paperback and hardback editions - I have the same edition of A Little Princess as you and Bel.

But even though the 80s were naff, and the 90s were ugly, I dislike both those decades far, far less than the current fashion for making everything look like an extension of the Bratz franchise.

As Bel pointed out:
I suppose the problem with children's books as it labels the book immediately as being for girls and not all girls, just the ones who would identify themselves with the colour.

It's really saddens me, and I find it awfully depressing. When I buy gifts for family and friend's kids, I steer very carefully clear of items that are gendered by colour and deliberately choose books, toys, clothes that both boys and girls are likely to find bright and cheerful and beautiful. It's easy enough to do that with picture books - I don't know what I'll do when I want to start giving out copies of my favourite classics if they're all pink and sparkly!

[girlyswot.livejournal.com]

Find secondhand copies on eBay!

I have two godsons and no goddaughters which is something of a disappointment to me, since I think I would quite enjoy having a little girl to buy fun things for. But for the two boys, I've found it fairly easy so far to find things that I want to give them which don't play too obviously into any gender stereotype. I wonder if this would be harder when buying for girls.

[dogstar101.livejournal.com]

Well, I've mainly had girls to buy for (until very recently!) and I haven't found it a problem so far. But then, I do live in Crouch End, yoghurt-knitting capital of the UK.

[nundu-art.livejournal.com]

How does one knit yoghurt? I know knitters are a mad group, who knit about anything, but I get a mental picture of very slimy fingers and needles.

[dogstar101.livejournal.com]

I seem to recall that in the States, the equivalent vaguely perjorative term denoting an alternative lifestyle is 'granola'?

[nundu-art.livejournal.com]

Never heard of it. So is 'knitting yoghurt' some sort of derogatory comment? *feels so out of it*

[gabrielladusult.livejournal.com]

Making the cover of all those books pink is bad -- especially because we don't want to discourage boys from reading them any more than we want to discourage girls from reading Treasure Island (or the Harry Potter series).

The one that bugs me is when the book is turned into a movie and then you can't find it anywhere without the actors and movie logo on the cover.

[alkari.livejournal.com]

The one that bugs me is when the book is turned into a movie and then you can't find it anywhere without the actors and movie logo on the cover.</> Hear, hear!! And I *really* hated it when I went looking for classic fairytales and similar stories for my nieces and nephew, and found that so many of them had their illustrations completely "Disneyfied".

Luckily, a few months ago I was able to get a lovely copy of 'The Railway Children' for my 10 y.o. niece, with a colourful non-movie and non-Disney cover.

[girlyswot.livejournal.com]

My copy of The Railway Children has Jenny Agutter on the cover and I have to say that I quite like it.