Pretty in Pink

On embracing my inner 'girl'

I’ve never been much of a wearer of pink, even when I was a kid.

Photo by Pawel Czerwinski on Unsplash

As a baby I was quite chonky, and Mum dressed me in pink, just to let people know I was a girl. Still, she got the comments as clueless folk peered into the pram and saw a little chub tucked in there in a little pink outfit, and said, ‘Oh, he’s a beautiful baby, isn’t he?’ and Mum would be like, ‘Yes, SHE is, isn’t SHE?’

But I wasn’t particularly a ‘pink’ girl. To me, a Pink Girl grows up with all fluffs and sparkles and unicorns and tutus and giggly sleep-overs and girly nonsense. Not that there’s anything wrong with any of that, I just don’t remember ever having that kind of childhood.

I had an incredibly happy childhood as an only child. The story goes that Mum and Dad ‘had the best one first, so they didn’t need anymore’, which is lovely, but I know that life just got too busy, and siblings were just never on the cards. And that’s fine. That’s how I grew up. I was always happy playing on my own, apparently with the odd imaginary friend or two, which I think helped me develop a healthy imagination and a good sense of being able to tackle life on my own.

But back to the Pink Thing.

Photo by Julee Juu on Unsplash

I had dolls, LOVED Barbie - what girl doesn’t? But I remember wanting what I think was called a Baby Born. It was a plastic baby with a hole in the mouth and a hole … well … down the nappy end, and you fed it a ‘bottle’ (just water, I presume) and minutes later, little baby would wee in her nappy, and you had to change it. To be honest, in my menopause years, I sometimes feel like my body has adopted those characteristics. I drink something, and half an hour later it’s sitting in my bladder yelling very loudly, and off I go to the loo. Again.

But I digress.

Mum never bought me a Baby Born, I have a memory of her saying that she wanted more for me than just changing nappies, which I think is actually pretty cool. Toys tend to train kids as to what their expected roles are when they become adults, and I guess my parents wanted me to know that I had much more of a life to look forward to other than babies and their instantly-wet nappies.

I had friends who had these dolls, and I think I was a teensy bit jealous, but not much. I was busy riding my bike, climbing trees, and having a great childhood.

I think the conscious de-pinking happened in High School. The 80’s were a time of pastel colours; muted hues and big shoulder pads. I remember being absolutely stoked to have a new outfit for a wedding and it was a pastel green. I thought I was the bees knees.

There were pastel pinks, but oddly enough, it was the blokes who wore them, thanks to Don Johnson of the TV show Miami Vice and his feminine-butch embracing of pink shirts and the 5 o’clock shadow (remember the shaver that would allow you to also have his look? Apparently called the Miami Device).

The cool cars. The big guns. The Miami beach sunsets. The pink shirts.

Then I became a chef, and although I do remember having fluro pink buttons for my chef’s tunic - you can buy all sorts of colours for them, it’s very liberating - I’m not sure I really wore them ever. Except that time I did private catering for friends of Mum & Dad’s, a Pink Party, where as much of the food as possible was pink, and I broke out the pink chef’s tunic buttons. Go me!

But I’ve never been a girly girl. And by that I mean I’ve never been one to wear makeup, faff around with my hair, wear ‘feminine’ florals and lace and floofs (who says that’s feminine anyway, that’s what I’d like to know!). Maybe if my career trajectory had been a different one, things might have been different? If I’d had a job where I had to get dressed up every day in a nice suit, or an office-type outfit, perhaps I would have done my hair and makeup every day, and been a girly young woman.

As it was, I became a chef. Checked pants, white straight jacket chef’s jacket, hair tied back, safety boots. Done. Makeup was a big no-no because when you’re working over open flame grillers and deep fryers and flat grills and gas hobs, you sweat like a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. No pore-smothering makeup for me, thank you!

I’ve been a comfy-in-boots girl for most of my life. Boots over stilettos ANY day. Comfy jeans or pants over a skirt YES PLEASE. Creating delicious memories for diners over tapping at a keyboard all day YEP (she says, tapping at a keyboard - oh the irony!!)

But in the past six months, I find myself drawn to pink things, and I can’t really put a finger on why. I have a small selection of pretty floral tops that have quite a bit of pink in them. I deliberately bought pink ‘sticky’ socks last week for when I start my Pilates class this week. And check out these other things of mine which just so happen to be pink:

Pink, glorious Pink: my bedspread and sheets are pink, my office chair, mouse and mouse mat are pink, my incredibly floofy slippers are pink, I even have pink strawberry socks, and my yoga mat is pink.

So what’s going on? Even the trackpants I’m wearing as I write this are pink!

Why the sudden embracing of the Pink?

I think it’s a menopause thing, to be honest, because all weird, inexplicable stuff for women in their 40’s - 60’s can usually be correctly attributed to that hormonal roller coaster ride.

Now I’m in my 50’s, I really don’t care what people think anymore. I totally understand why older women are more likely to wear loud colours, and why they seem to be able to skirt around all the social rubbish about what a person can and can’t wear at a certain age. It’s because the little nodes in their brains that used to be alert to all of that stuff are now drowned out with the ebb and flow of the vanishing and reappearing of hormones. One day they feel fabulous and will wear whatever the heck they like, then the next day comes and they feel like a sloth with tumbleweeds blowing around in their brain, so they wear whatever the heck they like. Easy!

Our bodies are doing whatever they please without our consultation, so why should we check in with it as to what we’re going to cover it with? Hmm?

Pink it is!

Do you find yourself gravitating towards a certain colour? Do you know why?

Are you one of those people who’ve had their ‘colours done’? (for those uninitiated to this phrase, you get advice from a personal colour stylist who helps you find the right colours to suit your skin and hair, and then you go buy a whole new wardrobe of clothes to fit into the New You.) I have never done this as it seems like an expensive way of finding out what you like. I mean, surely one knows what one likes to wear? {shrugs indecisively}

Anyway, that’s my thoughts and ponderings for this week.

Apologies for this being a day late, but … life … you know?

Take care,

Catch you next week,

Maggie x