Thinking Pink

You know the great thing about paydays? You can pay for stuff. Like groceries. And daycare. And if you're really, really lucky, extras like a new dvd player.

I tried to resurrect the old one. I really did. I cleaned it and whacked it and made burnt offerings to the electronics gods for it (ok, so that was the dinner I forgot was in the oven, but it should still count, right?), but nothing worked. So, it was off to The Superstore for a new one; we can do without a lot of things around here, but easy access to the Disney and Whedon oeuvres isn't one of them.

It's kind of funny, actually. I remember back when dvd players were a major electronics purchase--something only the true movie geeks or those with some serious disposable income indulged in. And now, it's a $25 purchase at the grocery store. And instead of the very serious silver casing, now you can get fun colours!

The one we were getting came in three kicky colours: Bright blue, bubblegum pink, and cherry red. Diva Girl, true to form, immediately began clamouring for the pink one. The Shaolin Toddler was no less emphatic in her desire to bring the blue one home. So, with the wisdom of Solomon, I decreed we were getting the red one. Which really worked out for me; I'm not particularly fond of blue, and while I like pink as much as the next girly girl, I thought maybe it would be a little too cliche for our all female household to indulge in a pink dvd player.

Did I really want to identify us like that? A pink dvd player?

I confess, our home is very...feminine. Not in a lace and ruffles way, but still, the lack of a male presence is obvious in our decor. It shows in the dangly beads on the light fixture in my bedroom, in the vibrant stripes on my comforter, in my polkadot kleenex boxes. It's in my Anne Taintor kitchen, and the sunflowers on my livingroom walls. My translucent curtains, my colourful striped glasses, my picture frames, my hugable rug....all of these design choices scream that this is more than a female space, it's a feminine one.

Not even the Star Wars Potato Heads on my desk, the giant stuffed stegosaurus on the bookshelf, or the Spiderman blanket on Regan's bed detract from the inherent girlishness of our space--the pink blocks littering the floor, the Barbie house in the livingroom, the ballgowns in the dressup box, and the overabundance of Olsen twins and Disney Princesses filling my dvd shelves make certain of that. Do we really need a pink dvd player, too?

The other stuff--the tutus and the tiaras--are the sort of accidental debris that accumulates when you raise daughters. Unless you are hypervigilant, which I confess I'm not, that sort of stuff just seeps into your toybox. But a pink dvd player, that's a choice. That's a conscious statement that we have pink because we are girls and girls have pink. Standing in the middle of The Superstore, using my biblical judgment to mediate The Ladies' colour dispute, I was actually relieved that they were fighting, that they were giving me an easy out on this one.

And then The Toddler Formerly Known As Zen changed her mind.

Oh well, at least the cute little pink dvd player looks fabulous with my new rug.

Comments

Its pink, oh my goodness, BG would just die to have a pink DVD player.
I have noticed lately that I am accumulating some boy stuff, must be the fact that my friend J has now got two boys and they are always round here!!
Nothing wrong with a bit of pink, so long as its not your entire wardrobe!

I would die for some estrogen around here! Between Buzz Lightyear, BatMAN, SpiderMAN & SuperMAN, I'm the lone chromosome. Thank goodness for pink nailpolish!

Funny twist to the story! I'm a red girl, myself.

We have a Darth Tater too.

wow, a pink DVD player, we need one of those!

I'm also the single mom of 2 girls. As I was cleaning this morning it occurred to me that it is very evident that our home is not occupied by any men!

Hmm, does that lack of testosterone mean that you do NOT have underpants on your living room floor? I'd take the pink DVD player, if it could teach my son to put his dirty laundry away!

Sadly, we still have underpants on the livingroom floor. Pink ones, but underpants nonetheless.

It is just me and my daughter who is five and pink is not an overabance in my house, the color of choice is purple, which is girly, but not as girly as pink. I'm more of a red kind of girl. So there is plenty of that to go with the purple.

Haha, you're too funny Kim! It's OK to embrace the pink. :D

Tell me about it, girl. I had 28 bucks only at the grocery store yesterday. It's called bread, egss and milk. Just gotta' keep your chin up.

I think pink shows femininity. Just so long as you don't go overboard.