Barbie
Wasn’t allowed a Barbie doll as a child. Unashamed loud, proud cheerleader & lover of pink as an adult 💕
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Without quizzing my Mum now, I’m not sure the anti-Barbie thing was on feminist grounds so much as, non-junky, plasticky grounds.
I’m also not sure I was ever a girlie-girl or not growing up, so much as a girl who was a girl.
I coveted my cousins’ Barbie and Sindy dolls when we were at their house (I mean they had a CARAVAN and ballgowns and a posh Barbie house and EVERYTHING!) but also spent most of the rest of my time wading up and down streams and waterfalls for miles, making mud pies, being generally grubby and urchinesque, swinging on the swing, writing poems on poetry rock, daydreaming, people watching, sucking my thumb, reading, making jewellery to sell at the bottom of a remote, rural, woodland drive that was passed by approximately 2 walkers a year, playing ‘offices’ (the donation of my Mum’s old cheque book was a Very Good Day at the office!)…
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Loving pink does not make you a girlie girl or a barbie fan. It makes you someone who loves the colour pink.
I also love yellow, blue, red, green, grey, black.
But mostly only in their boldest, purest form. Or certainly, in hues you see naturally recurring and echoed in nature. I’m not a fan of what I call, ‘dental surgery green’ for example, or pastels generally. Or beige. Sand is sand, sand is not beige. Dusky pink is dusky pink.
Not really a fan of brown either. Except on cattle and bears (and teddies too).
Famously prejudiced against the colour purple (unwarranted, unjust, but completely defensible).
But only on or around me. It’s a free world. And flowers work in all colours. Except carnations.
Let’s not even discuss Magnolia paint.
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Pink was considered a very masculine colour right up to the 20th century. The nazis added their own sinister spin in the 30s. And then there is the Barbie-effect - and all the rest. Pink has been on quite a journey…
Nobody owns colours. Nobody gets to colonise them either. Or saturate their perception and association.
I love pink. But I also carry a hacksaw, screws, a Leatherman and various other tools - in my ‘hand’ bag.
But no make up. And I never brush my hair.
