Beyond The Pink Label

BEYOND THE PINK LABEL By: Tanishqa Ashok Narayan “Personally, I’ve noticed that the older I’ve gotten, the less I care about trying to prove I’m “different.” I don’t feel the need to reject something just because it’s feminine anymore. If I like something, I like it. If I don’t, I don’t. And I don’t think either choice should mean anything deeper about my character.” - Jahnvi Prashanth “Hating the colour pink was never just about the colour pink.” This is a viral sentiment that originated on TikTok and from young women unpacking their “not like other girls” phase. It wasn’t just about the colour itself but what it represented to them : gender expectations, internalized misogyny and infantilization often tied to hyper-femininity. But where did it all start? A colour simply meant to symbolize softness has somehow managed to offend a significant amount of the female population. Let’s look at the historical context of it. Pink wasn’t always meant for girls. In the early 20th century, pink was actually considered a more strong, masculine colour (a diluted red) while blue, ironically, was considered a more feminine and dainty colour. However, in the 40’s and 50’s clothing companies were looking for ways to sell more cloth and decided to market pink as the official colour for girls as a result of postwar gender norms. So, this flip is only about 70-80 years old as a result of clothing companies wanting to sell more onesies. Why did some girls push back? For most people, pink was often associated with weakness and fragility and also attached a negative connotation for being more effeminate and naturally made them think that if they wanted to be taken seriously, they had to stray away from anything even remotely feminine. Even when it comes to things as basic as a job interview. Rather than hating or disliking pink for what it really is, it was disliked for what it actually represented. To some, that may have been accepting their feminine side while to others, it came out to be the desire to be “different” or “softer” (which was traditionally associated with more “masc” colours). According to the personal experiences of some girls, they hated pink because in all the media they consumed such as video games, TV shows, movies, etc. lighter shades were often associated with vulnerability and fragility. On the other hand, colours like blue and deep red represented much stronger emotions, the ones they wanted to embody. It’s almost considered a “canon event” in every girls’ life. Many kids go through a phase where they reject anything remotely girly, more popularly known as the “Tomboy Phase”, as a way of exploring other parts of their identity. Pink becomes shorthand for something they don't want to be associated with. Also, some tend to stray away from it due to something known as “Pink Fatigue”. For a very long time, everything is marketed to us as pink. Overexposure breeds aversion and as result , we got a little sick of it. Another factor contributing to it is the “Pink Tax”. It’s been noticed that women’s products are often marketed at higher price and that awareness can turn into annoyance toward the colour itself. The viral discussion doesn't just stop at the root of the hatred; it heavily focuses on healing and reclaiming identity. Many creators share how, upon entering adulthood, they began to embrace the color pink again. This reclamation is framed as shedding the "pick-me" mentality or internalized misogyny, and instead, unapologetically embracing their womanhood and celebrating girlhood without fear of judgment. According to a few people I've asked about this question, most of them had similar answers. Hating pink was never about the color itself, just the fact that it was taught to most people as a representation of “girls” as a whole, which put a lot of pressure and unnecessary stereotyping onto something as simple as a color. Even things like wearing pink shoes and pink clothes and ran slow during a sports game, the “run like a girl” comments somehow felt worse because they were representing “girls” as a whole, instead of just themselves. Hating pink wasn’t about the color pink because really it was just about the jokes people would make about “girly girls”, or the idea of fitting a “feminine” stereotype and being boxed into a category. But, somewhere along the way, we all learn that the colours we wear are in no way, shape or form a reflection of our personality, way of thinking or even our level of seriousness. I think when we were younger, a lot of us wanted to be seen as different or taken seriously, and for some reason the easiest way to do that was by distancing ourselves from anything that was considered “girly”. It almost became a personality trait to say, “I hate pink,” or “I’m not like other girls,” because femininity was seen as something less than. If you liked makeup, dresses, pink, romance, or anything stereotypically feminine, people were so quick to assume you were shallow or less intelligent. Looking back, that’s actually kind of sad because none of those things ever had anything to do with who you were as a person. It felt like if you embraced those things, people wouldn’t take you as seriously, thus the rejection towards the colour. I also think this goes way beyond the colour pink. You could replace pink with dresses, makeup, bows, heels, flowers, romance, literally anything that’s been labelled as “feminine.” The conversation is never really about those things themselves. It’s about how society treats femininity and the way women have had to navigate that. For a long time, anything associated with women was seen as less serious or less valuable, so naturally people wanted to distance themselves from it. At the end of the day, I don’t think the goal is for everyone to suddenly love pink or become ultra-feminine. The goal is just to let women exist without every little preference becoming a statement. You should be able to love pink, hate pink, wear black every day, wear dresses, never wear makeup, or love doing your makeup, and none of those things should determine whether people see you as smart, capable, strong, or independent. I also think one thing that’s worth mentioning is that I don’t think there’s anything wrong with women who genuinely never liked pink. The point isn’t that everyone secretly loves it. It’s that whether you like it or not should come from your own taste, not because you’re trying to distance yourself from femininity or fit into what society thinks is “cool”. “I don’t think we actually hated pink. I think we hated what people assumed about us if we liked it.”