3 of 24

Write now Article Tools

Pink. Disney princesses, girls, and femininity. Pink is more than a color. It's a persona. It's an attitude. It's PINK. It's the favorite color of most little girls, and many never change. I was and still am one a young victim of pink fever. My desire to be just like one of the princesses I saw in movies (even the Disney flicks with more modernized women) is more than likely what fueled my pink craze. When I was seven years old, I didn't want to wear anything but pink dresses. And sure enough, when boys in my class played anything from Super Mario Brothers to Pirate Ship at recess, I was always invited to be the princess. I'm pretty sure that my pink persona was responsible.

Several years ago, I worked at Cedar Point for a weekend as part of "the Ride Pride," a program that lets college students work to raise money for their organizations. Two of my best friends and I had mistakenly assumed that working with the adorable visitors to "Kiddy Kingdom" would be one of the easier jobs. One opportunity arose amidst my exhaustion, however: Working at the "Frog Hopper," the Kiddy Kingdom version of "Tower of Terror," made for prime people watching. And children's personalities are far more distinct than most people admit.

On the Frog Hopper, there were six seats: two green, one blue, one yellow, one red, andyou guessed it. A pink one. We'd been advised before the park opened that there would be fights over that pink frog. Yeah right, I thought. I assumed the park employee was exaggerating. Wrong!

At least ninety percent of the girls who boarded the ride by themselves when crowds were low headed straight for the pink frog. When two girls got on together, they argued over it. "You had pink last time!" or "I wanted the pink!" echoed in my ears all day long. There were two girls who returned every hour or so and continued this argument throughout the day. It was always a contest to see who could push past the gate the fastest, banging into me in the process, and scramble up onto the pink frog the quickest.

One girl sat in the yellow frog, nearly in tears because her older sister was already in the pink one. The older girl kindly switched with her younger sibling, drawing praise from her parents. The pattern was too obvious to miss: girls like pink. But I don't believe that they like pink just because they like the look of it. There is a deep cultural message teaching girls that if they do not associate themselves pink, they are not beautiful princesses, or at least not like their female role models in the media, real or fictional.

Perhaps the young female obsession with pink is part of a healthy attempt to mimic their role models from cartoons, movies, Nintendo, and other forms of media. It could be a positive sign that girls want to equate themselves with princesses. This may indicate that they see themselves as beautiful and worthy of love, happiness, and the "good life."

Or maybe their general love of the rosy shade reveals some problems. Do girls mimic their royal role models because they look up to them for good reasons, or is it because they feel pressured to be perfect and beautiful, in the narrowest sense of the word? Another cause for concern is the competitive, childish cattiness that many girls display towards each other in arguments over who gets to be the most princess-like, or at Kiddy Kingdom, who gets to ride the pink frog. What made most girls under the age of eight in the park that day compete to out-pink each other?

Maybe it's nothing. Maybe most little girls just genuinely like the color without any help from marketing, media, and visual culture. Maybe there's really no more to it than that. But somehow, I doubt it.

Learn more about this author, Zoe C.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

Add your voice

Know something about Understanding the role of society in forming gender identities?
We want to hear your view. Write now!