Girls Sports vs Pinkification

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Now days, when little girls first start their sports, you can find all sorts of little girly pink items that help identify them as girl athletes. How many of you have seen things like pink baseball bats, pink soccer balls, pink basketballs, pink baseball gloves?  At first when I saw those things, I thought, OK, now people at least recognize the fact that girls DO PLAY SPORTS!  The market has now been tapped. 

 Great those girls have their own sports equipment, but what is that saying about girls?  There are many organizations that are raising the question about pink vs. girls.   Why do they have to be pink?  Should girls be given a choice when it comes to colors?   Why is pink the only option.  Perhaps, a nice purple, turquoise, green, red, or may I dare say, blue?  Michele Yulo the founder of Princessfree zone.com says that; “I'm not against pink as long as other colors are represented for girls. My problem is lack of choice in the assumption that all girls like pink. Princess Free Zone wants to change that (along with others), but the whole pinkification of girlhood is ridiculous. There is nothing genetic with regards to color being assigned to gender. “ 

Melissa Wardy, founder of Pigtail Pals-Redefine Girly, says “Why does sports equipment have to be pink? Why does my daughter need to be reminded of her gender at ALL times?  Many, many girls play sports…I just don’t understand why they need gender-coded equipment. On another note---does gender-coded sports equipment exclude boys and girls from paying together?  That would be a shame, as that trend would be the antithesis of my childhood, mostly spent outdoors playing sports and games in a co-ed group”  When my own daughters started playing sports about 10 years ago, there was no such thing as pink anything for girl’s sports.  I believe that I may have bought it is there was.  At 4 or 5 years old, wouldn’t it be cute to see the little girls running around with pink balls?  Maybe not so much.  Girls at that age are prime for the “pinkification” process.  Some of the young girls are so into being girls, that pink is how they show the world who they are.  How do those adorable little jocks keep their identity once they get out onto the court or field?  I guess it is pink balls and hair bows?  As close as my daughter’s came to remaining true to their own girlyness was to wear pink nail polish. I must say I was guilty of promoting pink.  At that time in my life, I was not aware of the whole societal impact of promoting pink.  With my daughter’s who are twins, I did manage to only promote pink with one daughter, the other daughter picked purple as her identity.

As girls mature, and continue to play sports, we fast forward past the little girl’s jocks, to middle school age girl jocks.  The novelty of the pink balls and hair bows has come and gone.  What do girls this age do to keep their girliness alive, or do they care at this point?  They have put in hours of practice, played many games, have sweated and worked their butts off, do they need to make a statement about being a girl?  I believe some of them still do.  For some keeping the distinction between them being girls and girly still remains an incentive. At this age, they have graduated to wearing pink sports bras, maybe some pink shoelaces, and perhaps some pink pre-wrap (the pre wrap tape that trainers use when taping up ankles.  Some brilliant person created a rainbow of colors those lots of girls use is hair accessories) 

Moving on to high school age athletes, how do they now establish the fact that they want to LOOK like girls, but be tough aggressive and hard core jocks, without looking like boys?  What can they possible do now?  Well, I have seen fake eyelashes and acrylic nails on the court!  At this age, it is not so much about pink, but the girls this age have a more developed since of style and self.   I know there has been recent debate about colors for gender, keeping gender a secret, just being people, but…. These girls are trying to find a place in this world where they can be feminine, play sports, be tough, and be respected all while looking like girls.  Let’s give them a chance, support them, encourage them, and provide them choices in colors! Let’s help them develop their own style, swagger, and love of whatever they choose.

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