Thursday, July 01, 2010

Orange you glad it isn't Pink?

Items I own that are Pink:

DVDS: Breakfast at Tiffany's, Drop Dead Gorgeous, Beverly Hills 90210 Season 1, Coupling Season 4, Gilmore Girls Season 5 & 7 (based solely on the color of the spine of the case)
3 Victoria's Secret bags
2 Nail files
1 Candle
1 jug Raspberry Lemonade
1 Minnie Mouse Travel Coffee Mug
1 sponge
1 Picture frame
5 Shirts
1 pair pants
3 pair pajama pants
2 bras
5 pair underwear
3 pair socks
Fabric scraps (I'm not actually going to bust into that box right now, but I know there's some pink fabrics in there)
1 "Blushing Nude" lipstick
1 makeup compact
1 bottle Pepto Bismol
1 bottle Sweet Pea and Violet bodywash
1 Treasure Troll with fuchsia hair and a pink leotard (I found it in a microwave. No, really. Now it chills on my dining room table with a Ronald McDonald doll. My apartment is awesome.)

Items I own because they're pink:

None.

(An argument could be made that color was influential in the decision to buy the articles of pink clothing listed above, but in the case of all the pink shirts I own, either pink was the only option and I wanted the design, or I own the same shirt in multiple colors. At no point did I spot a shirt and go "Yay! It comes in pink!")

This list is a response to this post about marketing guns to women by making them pink. Making guns pink isn't marketing to women, it's just supporting the sexist notion that all women love all things pink. I cannot wait for the day that "Shrink it and Pink it" stops being the primary way companies market to women. Making it pink is not going to inspire me to purchase a gun. Or a cell phone, or a tool set, or a computer, or anything else for that matter. Women are not simplistic creatures. Seeing the color pink does not set off some sort of trigger in our brains that causes us to buy. Why why WHY is everything designed for women PINK? If I'm given the choice between two objects that are identical aside from color, I will almost never choose the pink one. The other one has to be a seriously ugly color for me to go with the pink.

If marketers really want to sell to me on the basis of color, they should make things orange.

For more on the "Shrink it and pink it" phenomenon, check out this Jezebel post.