Ever since I can remember, pink has been my favorite color. I’ve always gravitated toward pink sweaters and bedsheets, enticed by the bright hue.
But as a first grader, I randomly started to avoid admitting this opinion at all costs. When asked what my favorite color was, I’d confidently answer “blue!” – even though this was inaccurate. At the time, I didn’t truly realize why I did this – I thought it was because pink wasn’t ‘cool’ enough. But looking back, I understand that I was subconsciously embarrassed to fit into any gender-based stereotypes framing me as girly – or weak.
This fear was an example of a stereotype threat, the concept of feeling threatened by adhering to negative stereotypes. Gender-specific marketing has labeled pink as the assigned color for girls, and blue for boys. Yet there’s no tangible reason behind these set colors; color stereotypes are solely social constructs. From these social constructs come negative stereotypes, and from these negative stereotypes come stereotype threats.
I believed that liking the color pink would portray me as ‘too girly’. But what does ‘too girly’ even mean, and why does it have to be a bad thing?
When characterizing a person as girly, the words emotional, dramatic, and sensitive tend to come to mind. The Oxford Dictionary defines the word girly as the “characteristic of or appropriate to a girl or young woman”, yet also classifies the word as “derogatory” and “often used as a condescending term of address”. So being labeled as a girl, something that should refer to the gender, is “derogatory” and a “condescending term of address”? To me, this is upsetting and entirely confusing.
What does make sense to me, however, is that these unappealing generalizations are exactly what I was afraid of as a first grader.
Stereotype threat can turn girliness into something to be ashamed of. I refused to conform to this negative stereotype, so I turned to blue, the stereotypical “boy” color. I hoped to appear heroic and brave, which happen to be two of the Oxford Dictionary’s listed synonyms for “manly.”
Now, ten years later, I am proud to announce my favorite color to be pink. When someone tells me I’m girly (which has happened multiple times), I take it as a compliment and walk away with a smile on my face. Recognizing the societal norms and stereotypes that once dictated something as simple as my favorite color required a level of maturity that appears with age, and has opened my eyes to the world’s artificial setups.
Societal norms and social constructs are ordinary phenomena. Stereotypes occur naturally and help to categorize various items in the human brain. There’s no stopping such unavoidable contingencies. Yet something needs to be changed when addressing the unnecessarily negative stigmas around gender norms, especially when they continuously appear to impact children.
Stereotype threat can affect the behavior of kids and teens in a variety of situations, ranging from favorite colors to substance abuse. Avoiding these mental pressures can allow individuality, rather than changing behavior to fit in.
To start, the stigmas surrounding the word girly and the color pink should be shifted. Women should have the choice to embrace their individual femininity instead of feeling shame about it. Girliness should be fun and authentic – something that people are proud to have.
