All Things in Pink
I was surprised to learn that the colour pink was considered a masculine shade in English society a century or more ago.
Light blue was considered a more appropriate colour for girls whereas pink and its fiery parent colour red, was thought a more suitable colour for boys. I have the dress I wore when I was christened — a sweet, pleated tiny dress for a tiny baby — and in the colour white.
As the mother of two girls, pink has been in our lives for a long time, filtered out by age in recent years.
When my eldest daughter was born every nurse and doctor assumed she was a boy. Maybe it was her shock of thick, black hair and dark blue eyes. Frustrated by this assumption, I asked my husband to buy her a pink babygro so there wouldn’t be any more mistakes. I don’t know why it mattered so much. I’d been in labour a long time and exhaustion had overcome my body. I had to stay in the hospital for longer than I wanted with my newborn baby for reasons I can't quite remember.
Pink isn’t a colour I wear well — generally its cool tones aren’t suited to my warm complexion. Pink highlights the shadows under my eyes, something I am keen to avoid as I get older.
Aside from some neon pink footless tights I had in the ‘80s — a gift from a rebellious aunt -- I have steered clear from the colour pink particularly that lovely soft pink that precedes a sunset.
When my youngest daughter was four, a friend gave her a leotard with a tutu attached in the brightest shade of pink, a beautiful, vibrant bubblegum pink. As predicted, she loved it. In the school nativity, she played one of the three kings wearing her pink tutu leotard plus cape and crown. It was a proud moment.
My mum remembers buying my younger sister (the next one down, me being the eldest) a fire engine -- I remember playing with my Dad's cars from when he was young that my Granny kept in a lovely wooden toybox.
Thankfully, we no longer live in a sea of pink paraphernalia crowding everything else out from our house. My youngest wears a bit of pink here and there but no more tutus. She has a TikTok account with a huge following where she regularly posts videos of her outfits, laying them out carefully on our bed, pulling back the duvet and smoothing out the sheet. She says the light is better in our bedroom which makes me smile. She’s learnt a thing or two about light from her mother.
Photo by Tanya Clarke 2008
