The Offensiveness of Pink
When I first saw the title of the article Arkansas nixes offensive pink jerseys I was convinced I would be reading about how using traditionally female color associations to degrade men was perpetuating sexist stereotypes or something. To my astonishment, I find that Arkansas has stopped using pink jerseys as punishment because it’s offensive to breast cancer victims!
No offense meant to the breast cancer awareness movement… but really, let’s get serious for a moment. The movement feels so strongly about its cultural stranglehold on the color pink that it has now decided to use its political weight to keep pink from being used in offensive ways? And not “lilac” or “fuchsia” or “cotton candy” but the extremely broad “pink”, as in one of a mere 16 in a box of crayons! Can any movement that gains notoriety claim one of the basic colors, or is the honor reserved for particularly severe illnesses?
If your favorite color happens to be AIDS ribbon red or Lance Armstrong wristband yellow, my advice is to get down to the patent office and stake your claim… quickly, before another one of these jersey incidents goes down.
