“Congratulations! So, is it a pink crib or blue one?” is a question new parents are often asked. Right from their very first day on earth, boys and girls are conditioned to certain associations. Being brought up with a mindset such as this, it only gets tougher to break away from them as one grows up.
For years, the colour pink has been associated with women alone, and men who wear or like the colour are shamed. Actor Sanjay Dutt is one prime example of such shaming. An ad shot back in 2008 for a soda brand has resurfaced on the internet recently, which showed the actor calling men who like or wear pink effeminate and unmanly. He prodded his viewers to quit wearing such ‘girly’ colours and embrace colours like blue, black or grey.
Tejaswini, a member of the Hyderabad for Feminism group, says that the idea of pink representing women is quite a new one. “Indians never had this kind of mindset. It is quite new to us and has been imported from the West,” she says, adding, “You find people thinking like this only in the urban elite India. It is unfortunate, because it only increases gender segregation at a time when everyone is fighting for equality.”
Despite growing protests against gender stereotypes, some aspects of it still seep through. Ironically, the title of Shoojit Sircar’s upcoming film based on women empowerment is Pink. Amitabh Bachchan, the lead actor of the film, had explained that the title was chosen as the film was about women. But isn’t it treading on the same stereotype? Director Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury has a different explanation.
“We believe that pink has many connotations and we have attempted to give it a new dimension. Today’s generation doesn’t think that a colour has any particular association and ours is a film for such a generation,” he says.
Another example where pink is used to represent women empowerment is Gulabi Gang, an activist group by women for women’s welfare. Sampath Pal, the founder of the gang, says that pink is often a favourite colour of girls, but her intention was not to attribute a colour to any gender.
“When we would go together for some assignment, many of us would get scattered and to locate ourselves from among the crowd, we decided to have a uniform. In UP, the BSP’s colour is blue, Samajwadi Party’s colour is red and most other colours had already been taken by political parties or NGOs. Only pink was free and we chose it.
“I don’t think the colour represents women in general. I’ve never felt that pink is a women’s colour and men shouldn’t wear it. Everyone is equal, so why should one colour represent only one gender?” Sampath reasons.
— With inputs from Subhash K. Jha
