It is said to be the colour of passion, at least according to Aerosmith’s song, titled Pink. But we all know it as a girls colour. Maybe it is the commercial world fault pushing all this pink things for baby girls, and Barbie’s and grown up girlie girls. Or women have a certain affinity to the mix of red and white. Whatever way you look at it, pink comes off as a feminine hue, the girl’s colour, almost to the point of becoming synonymous with pretty and delicate.
But today, we see men wearing pink. And not in subtle ‘I am ashamed to be wearing this and had nothing else to wear’ but in flagrant displays of the colour. Pink shirts, pink jackets, pink scarfs, pink ties, pink caps, pink shoes even the rare pink pants. Not to forget the pink cleverly disguised in florals, stripes and chequers, which all show up on shirts. For a colour formally eschewed by macho men and perceived to be too frivolous and girly, pink seems to be everywhere in men’s clothes!
An internet search reveals that this could be just another one of those historical throwbacks. At some point, pink was actually preferred for boys because of its
strong striking hue and blue which was associated with the Virgin Mary, was for girls.
What is the general perception of men wearing pink, aside from the tired “it is a girl’s colour?” “It is a colour like any other says one, another says anything to break the monotony of that ‘boring to death blue white and cream’, yet another says that men who wear pink are sensitive. The woman who gives the last comment can’t explain how exactly one’s garment hue shows what is inside even when I put it to her that it is much like saying, wearing red makes a man a great lover and wearing white makes him pure or holy. So women do have qualms about wearing pink, one in three if my little research is anything to go by.