Marianne Kavanagh of the Daily Telegraph explores the sinister side of a favourite 'girly' colour
Barbara Cartland, candyfloss, strawberry milkshakes, flamingos - pink is sweet, cloying and faintly ridiculous. But little girls love it. Blame Barbie, or our willingness as parents to play along, but all little fairies are determinedly rose. Take Emily, three. "When I go into her bedroom," says Caroline, "it's like stepping into raspberry yogurt." A recent survey of 250 children by Kids Allowed child-care centres across the North-West found that 95 per cent of girls chose pink as their favourite colour.
It could all be conditioning. Nowadays we dress baby girls in pink and baby boys in blue (pre-1950, it was more likely to be the other way round), so our daughters are steeped in the colour from day one. Some claim our love of pink is hard-wired. Recent research by Professor Anya Hurlbert of Newcastle University found that women showed a marked preference for pink - or at least reddish shades of blue - because, she suggested, Stone Age women needed to recognise the bright blush of ripe fruit. And nothing much, according to this theory, has changed since the days of woolly mammoths.
But questions of nurture vs nature are academic when you don't have the choice and high street stores are dominated by sickly pinks and violent fuchsia. Sue, who has nine-year-old twin daughters, searches far and wide for alternatives. "Ailsa hated pink from the age of three and Freya was always indifferent because it was forced on them from every front and they rebelled."
You can't help wondering what all this pinkness is doing to the female psyche. Yes, we like pale pink nail varnish, according to a survey by Superdrug; yes, we like pink paint, according to Dulux. But pink phones, laptops and earphones? We're drowning in a sea of bubble gum.
There are signs of a backlash, says Susi Weaser, editor of the girls' gadget blog Shiny Shiny (www.shinyshiny.tv). "When we launched ShinyShiny about three years ago, we made the masthead pink because manufacturers were starting to launch pink gadgets and we thought it was exciting - finally they were recognising that women wanted to use technology, too. In the past year, it's become a bit naff - it's patronising and lazy. Teenage girls are still into pink, and more power to them, but if you walk into a business meeting and bring out a pink laptop, you're going to have to work ten times harder to hold your own."
Technology expert Caramel Quin agrees: "Pink products? It's a phase many tween girls go through, with Barbies and princess suits, but most grown women have no special love for the colour."
So do we need to worry if our daughters go through a phase of pink clothes, duvets, sheets and walls? "No," says psychologist Dr Jack Boyle. "It won't do them any harm. Small children think the genders should wear certain colours - they like to know the rules and prefer rigidity to flexibility. As they get older, they change their mind about their favourite colours every week."
But for some the issue has more sinister connotations, suggesting somehow that girls should confine themselves to princess-like prettiness rather than use their brains. Helen Haste, visiting professor at Harvard Graduate School of Education, talks of pink as cultural baggage.
"It's only gender-oriented in our culture," she says, "but like any cultural symbol, it sends out a message." The message gets more complicated as girls get older. Your teenage daughter may wear pink just because she likes it, but boys may see clues of extreme girliness. As Haste puts it: "Is pink the new blonde?" It's enough to make you want to ban pink from your daughter's life.
But remember that cultural associations, like fashions, change. The MCC is considering using a pink cricket ball for better visibility. And absolutely nothing is less frivolous than cricket.
Barbara Cartland, candyfloss, strawberry milkshakes, flamingos - pink is sweet, cloying and faintly ridiculous. But little girls love it. Blame Barbie, or our willingness as parents to play along, but all little fairies are determinedly rose. Take Emily, three. "When I go into her bedroom," says Caroline, "it's like stepping into raspberry yogurt." A recent survey of 250 children by Kids Allowed child-care centres across the North-West found that 95 per cent of girls chose pink as their favourite colour.
It could all be conditioning. Nowadays we dress baby girls in pink and baby boys in blue (pre-1950, it was more likely to be the other way round), so our daughters are steeped in the colour from day one. Some claim our love of pink is hard-wired. Recent research by Professor Anya Hurlbert of Newcastle University found that women showed a marked preference for pink - or at least reddish shades of blue - because, she suggested, Stone Age women needed to recognise the bright blush of ripe fruit. And nothing much, according to this theory, has changed since the days of woolly mammoths.
But questions of nurture vs nature are academic when you don't have the choice and high street stores are dominated by sickly pinks and violent fuchsia. Sue, who has nine-year-old twin daughters, searches far and wide for alternatives. "Ailsa hated pink from the age of three and Freya was always indifferent because it was forced on them from every front and they rebelled."
You can't help wondering what all this pinkness is doing to the female psyche. Yes, we like pale pink nail varnish, according to a survey by Superdrug; yes, we like pink paint, according to Dulux. But pink phones, laptops and earphones? We're drowning in a sea of bubble gum.
There are signs of a backlash, says Susi Weaser, editor of the girls' gadget blog Shiny Shiny (www.shinyshiny.tv). "When we launched ShinyShiny about three years ago, we made the masthead pink because manufacturers were starting to launch pink gadgets and we thought it was exciting - finally they were recognising that women wanted to use technology, too. In the past year, it's become a bit naff - it's patronising and lazy. Teenage girls are still into pink, and more power to them, but if you walk into a business meeting and bring out a pink laptop, you're going to have to work ten times harder to hold your own."
Technology expert Caramel Quin agrees: "Pink products? It's a phase many tween girls go through, with Barbies and princess suits, but most grown women have no special love for the colour."
So do we need to worry if our daughters go through a phase of pink clothes, duvets, sheets and walls? "No," says psychologist Dr Jack Boyle. "It won't do them any harm. Small children think the genders should wear certain colours - they like to know the rules and prefer rigidity to flexibility. As they get older, they change their mind about their favourite colours every week."
But for some the issue has more sinister connotations, suggesting somehow that girls should confine themselves to princess-like prettiness rather than use their brains. Helen Haste, visiting professor at Harvard Graduate School of Education, talks of pink as cultural baggage.
"It's only gender-oriented in our culture," she says, "but like any cultural symbol, it sends out a message." The message gets more complicated as girls get older. Your teenage daughter may wear pink just because she likes it, but boys may see clues of extreme girliness. As Haste puts it: "Is pink the new blonde?" It's enough to make you want to ban pink from your daughter's life.
But remember that cultural associations, like fashions, change. The MCC is considering using a pink cricket ball for better visibility. And absolutely nothing is less frivolous than cricket.
