Pink Stinks!

Okay, not necesarily the color itself, but the way mainstream society and commerce seem compelled to force girls to wear only pink, to set themselves goals of being princesses riding pink unicorns, and to grow up to be ornamental parasites like Paris Hilton.

Fortunately, there is a rejectionist movement. Pinkstinks is a campaign and social enterprise that challenges the culture of pink which invades every aspect of girls' lives.

Obviously it's possible to have sex role stereotyping without color coding, but in this case I would say that color coding is part of the language of sex role stereotyping.

And the results of sex role stereotyping? You might have an idea, but you might not know this:

[T]here is evidence that young women who hold the most conventionally feminine beliefs — who avoid conflict and think they should be perpetually nice and pretty — are more likely to be depressed than others and less likely to use contraception. What’s more, the 23 percent decline in girls’ participation in sports and other vigorous activity between middle and high school has been linked to their sense that athletics is unfeminine. And in a survey released last October by Girls Inc., school-age girls overwhelmingly reported a paralyzing pressure to be “perfect”: not only to get straight A’s and be the student-body president, editor of the newspaper and captain of the swim team but also to be “kind and caring,” “please everyone, be very thin and dress right.” Give those girls a pumpkin and a glass slipper and they’d be in business.

Your turn. Get over there and see the non-pink role models, anti-pink clothes, and news stories about women that don't depend on being pink and girly.