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]

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.

[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.

[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!

[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.