Photography

Friendly Friday Weekly Challenge – The Colour Pink

Forestwood

Young girls are pretty much divided into two camps – generally speaking. You are either a PINK or a PURPLE girl.

As each person’s eye sees colour, and variations of hue, a little differently and individually to the next, what is one person’s dreamy hue might be something another person intensely dislikes.

Tassie Tulips

Pink or Purple?

When we are young and asked what about our favourite colour, most girls will answer pink or purple. Very rarely, yellow or any other colour. This usually translates to little girls wearing predominantly either pink-coloured or purple-coloured clothes and decorations.

And never the Twain shall meet.

Just as most young boys will preference red as their favourite colour. At least in Australia, this is the pattern that we regularly see and hear, with young children.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that a Pink girl won’t wear, or use, other colours at all. It only means that when you ask a young girl what her favourite colour is, she will generally answer “Pink,” or she will answer, “Purple.”

It’s a thing.

Definitely a pink theme here but with a touch of purple

The Princess top in the above photo was purchased in Legoland in Denmark and was highly sought after in the Pre-school crowd at my daughter’s Kindergarten, especially so as it was unobtainable, in Australia. Fights even broke out, between the girls, over who got to wear it and there was lots of pouting from the ones that missed out. I had to ban the top from being worn to Kindergarten. My guess is the pink girls were the ones fighting.

One day a play date with a four-year-old friend of my daughter ended in tears. The little girl refused to leave our house unless she was allowed to take the Princess top home with her! My daughter naturally refused such an offer.

As for me: I used to be a purple girl, never a pink girl, but life changes you.

I had a wishy-washy lilac painted room as a child, as pastels were really the fashion. Yet, I have way too much Scandi genetic material to be completely sold on pastels, so a more cleaner, intensive colour is my choice these days. Yet looking through my WordPress archives, I note that most of my photos are indeed shades of purple, usually in the form of flowers.

I did find this gaudy ‘Pet Expo’ photo hidden in my archives:

This one didn’t have much choice in the matter!

We also see lots of pink in nature.

Or is it purple?

Pink or purple?

Join the Weekly Friendly Friday Challenge Theme

To join in, simply create a post, including a pingback, using the theme The Colour Pink, and tag it:

“Friendly Friday – The Colour Pink.”

Be sure to leave a comment below, so everyone can find your published post.

As this is the first post of the month, we ask you to post a little bit more about your chosen photo. This is not compulsory, but it is much more interesting to hear the narrative behind the photo. This does not have to be a lengthy piece.

Here are some ideas if you are stuck on what to write:

  • What is its significance or history of the photo/s?
  • Where and when were they taken?
  • Why was it taken?
  • Post a recipe/ tell a story that relates to the topic

Monthly Guest Blogger – Vero

We will soon be publishing a Guest post celebrating this theme, from the wonderful blogger Vero, in two parts. The first part will be published here at StPA tomorrow and the second part at Vero’s blog, so do check that out.

If you are interested in submitting a guest post for Friendly Friday, please contact me or Sandy, via the Contact pages, or via our WordPress Profiles.

Weekly Photo Challenge

Next week’s Friendly Friday Photo Challenge will be found at Sandy’s blog. See you there.

Friendly Friday
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Published by Forestwood

A philosophic Aussie writes here at StPA, one who will readily admit to loving Scandinavia. I'm interested in global politics and what drives us to be who we are. Scratch the surface and you'll find a practical Environmentalist with an egalitarian bent, trying to unleash a little creativity via the written word. Scandinavian culture, literature and traditions are close to my heart, even though I'm Australian. Travel and courteous discussions greatly broaden the mind, so I travel if I can and am always up for a vigorous, respectful discussion. I'm an avid reader, I enjoy photography and craft, particularly traditional art forms. I hope you'll find 'Something to Ponder About,' in my WordPress Community.

129 thoughts on “Friendly Friday Weekly Challenge – The Colour Pink”

    1. YOu could be right, Jane. Media does have a really big influence. Not so much in my childhood years, but surely today with devices in children’s lives from a very early age, they must be vulnerable to subliminal suggestions of “cool?’
      And Yay for you bucking the trend! There were some girls who didn’t fit the pink or purple mould!
      Blue – a Nordic shade of blue, is ONE of my favourite colours as an adult, although nothing really stands out like it did as a child.
      Do you have a real favourite now?

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        1. Aqua blue – lovely. That reminds me of the glacial fed lakes and rivers in Switzerland and New Zealand. Gorgeous. I would jump in them for a swim if they weren’t so darn cold!
          Cherry red – for clothes?

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  3. I was never interested in pink or purple as a child because we just used what mum gave us and I can’t remember any pink. I’m also not n pink person. My skin is more brown/orange than pink. I need to wear apricot and that just does wonders to my skin colour.

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    1. Apricot comes in some beautiful shades. I think it looks especially good when you have some olive undertones in your skin, as many Europeans do. I have only recently started wearing it and only in summer, when I have tanned up a bit. It would definitely suit you.
      Do you pick the same colours for quilting projects as you do in clothing colours, Ineke?

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  4. This is quite an interesting topic, Amanda, since we all see colors differently. I’ve never liked pink, though my grandma used to buy me lots of pink clothes when I was little and I had to wear them coz there was nothing else to wear. I wonder why she never thought to ask me which colors I liked! But I know she meant well ❤️ Anyway, my favorite color has always been blue. So no pink/purple choice here! Though purple is ok, I don’t dislike it. I think I even had a purple backpack at some point as a kid. I do like pastels. The only pink-ish shade I like is coral. About seeing colors differently, as a teen I had a pair of Diesel jeans that I liked. They were beige and they were the only clothes I had gotten to pick myself. I wore them all the time. Then one day, years later I was looking at an old photo of me: the jeans looked pink!! I asked my mum and she said ”oh you mean your pink jeans?” The whole time, I had been seeing my favorite jeans in a different color than everyone else!!! Ironically, they all saw them as the one color I don’t like! (The same thing also happened with a pair of velvet pants that were black, except everyone else saw them as blue. And a coat that was green but looked brown to others.)

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    1. How amazing is that, Snow? Beige jeans looking pink. Isn’t there an internet meme about whether a photo of a partucular dress is navy blue or green? I remember having a debate with someone about that.
      So this must affect lots of people?
      I can also imagine you were really keen to buy your own clothes once you started work.
      Do you choose blue clothes for the boys?

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      1. Yes, very keen to dress the way I wanted to, though I’m not into trends but just to pick the clothes myself. It was liberating, getting a job and control of everything myself 😊 You’re right!
        The boys have all sorts of colors in their wardrobe, but I do tend to lean on blue a bit

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  5. Pink used to be virtually a swear word for me. I couldn’t abide it for its overtones of sickly-sweet little-princess-ness. I wouldn’t wear it as a child and nothing would have persuaded me to put my daughters in pink – or frilly white ankle-socks come to that. I’m not so hard line now, and love it in flowers and blossom – I even have a ‘dirty pink’ jumper. I can’t remember having views either way on purple – but someone said to me recently ‘Purple? So aging!’ so that knocked that one on the head!

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    1. Well – I hear you on the pink. In fact, I didn’t realize for years that paler shades of pink suited me as I had never ever worn them. Until one day, I wore a dress with a little pink in it, to a party and was surprised at the number of compliments people made. And agree we don’t want to go for purple ‘anything,’if it does cause the impression of ageing! I wonder if that is due to the purple rinses women used to put in their hair?

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  6. Pingback: Rainy pink day | Le Drake Noir

    1. Sorry for eavesdropping on your comment, but this reminds me of the ”Pink Lady” I used to work with 😁 We worked in clothing retail and she was 30-ish, tall and skinny and said she did gigs as a model and loved fashion. And… she only wore pastel pink. Baby pink. Ballerina pink. From head to toe, every day. I always thought, ”You said you love fashion! This is pink! It isn’t fashion!” I never did get to the bottom of her pink obsession!

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      1. There was a TV program I’ll never forget about conditioning in children. They said boys and girls are exactly the same up to 7 years old. Then they start changing. The children were so conditioned already at that age, girls didn’t believe in themselves and saw themselves less capable than boys in any physical activity. They also thought being pretty was the end all of their existence, a message they got from their parents and from what they wore. Boys were very competitive and incapable of dealing with any emotion. Again that was mainly from parents and clothes, with very aggressive messages. I am lucky to know a lot of very inteligent and capable women, but all of them still think that if they don’t get married they have failed somehow…

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        1. That is sad to hear that marriage is a sign of success for women. I would like to think it might be a feeling of satisfaction perhaps, but success? I know a few girls who don’t want to get married and are satisfied with their lives. Society’s expectations can be hard for some folk.
          I had two sons and a large gap and then a daughter. The daughter had access to all the boy’s toys and if anything would have been conditioned to play with them, as we did with the boys. Driving little toy cars down makeshift ramps of cardboard across the kitchen floor. I remember one day doing this with my daughter and she just looked at the car with a vacant look on her face and turned away completely disinterested in the car activity. She was into imaginative play with Teddy bears, not so much dolls. So this example confirmed for me that the parent conditioning theory isn’t always true, at least in my experience.

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          1. In my experience it was the same. My son was never encouraged to play with anything in particular but was always drawn to trucks and cars. I think parent conditioning is also to do with the terms they use when speaking to their children: the girls are little princesses, so cute and beautiful, and boys are little guys, so strong. How much is that to blame I really do not know…

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            1. An interesting point you make regarding the influence of language. I aimed to encourage empathy and compassion in my sons with the result that they are gentle highly sensitive souls. Perhaps they wetter like this anyways, but it is hard not to call your daughter beautiful because in my eyes she was!

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      1. Possibly. Or marketing. It is difficult to find girls clothes that are not pink with glitter. You still have “girl’s toys” again all pink and glittery.

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  8. Pingback: Approaching pink – pictures imperfect blog

  9. your little princess is absolutely adorable 😀
    While I was never a pink girl as a kid, I have grown to like pink in recent years, it gives me positive vibes for some reason 🙂

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    1. Paler pinks seem to grow on me as I age, Alexandra. Except I still dislike pastel pink, otherwise known to me as toilet-paper pink. They don’t seem to make pink toilet paper anymore but at one point Sorbent made a pastel pink paper….it wasn’t great.The Princess is now grown and would probably be mortified at the photo. Lol.

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  10. Apparently I wasn’t one of the “most girls”. My favourite colour was blue and because I wanted to dress like a boy I wanted a pair of jeans. I didn’t get them for the longest time and had to do with tan and light brown chequered pants (possibly my mother picked them specially ugly to make skirts more attractive?). My resort came in summer when I wore a lederhose (green, no frills, not the girly red variety with hearts). 🙂 Having said that: cosmos are (one of) my favourite flowers because they remind me so much of the South African highveld (I know they are native to Australia, though). And that dog … she (it has to be a she!) looks as if she is hung over after a hard night partying with a cigarette dangling from her snout! 😀
    Here is my pink entry: https://picturesimperfectblog.wordpress.com/2020/06/05/approaching-pink/

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    1. Haha! You made me laugh, Knickers!! You have imagined well the potential life of that indulged poodle!
      Smoking hot pink and purple – pun intended! Lol.
      I don’t think the Cosmos are native here. Google tells me that Mexico is their original home but happy to be adoptive country for them.
      You in Lederhoser? I could see that. They are very practical outfits for kids who are playing in the yard, I imagine?

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      1. I just know that cosmos was unknown in South Africa before the Boer war and it is said to have come into the country with horse feed for the British troops from Australia. Since this is the story one reads so often it would be a major undertaking to fact check. -Yes, I liked them as a kid. I’m not sure if they are really practical especially when they get wet. As children’s outfits they have all but disappeared. I don’t think I’ve seen a child in one for ages. This might be different in the Alps. … I’ve just been thinking that maybe their decline came with the advent of good washing machines.

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        1. I cannot speak about the decline in lederhose – only that kids clothes became a fashion item and very inexpensive at a certain time.
          You could be right about the introduction of Cosmos to SA. They may have arrived from USA, Mexico or Europe to Australia first and thence to SA.

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  11. Pingback: Friendly Friday- The Colour Pink | nowathome
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  14. I would call your cosmos pink, but it does have elements of lilac. It’s very pretty either way. As a student I had only two dresses for partying, both pink, but as a child, I don’t think I had any preference for the colour, though I did like the shapes. My favourite dresses were a green and a blue gingham!

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    1. So far the pink/purple theory is almost completely blown, Susurrus! It may just have been an Australian thing.
      And gingham was pretty popular a while back. The clothes we find which become our favourites are not always what we expect.

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  16. Uuummm interesting! I think I see more girls in pink now that I don’t live in Spain… I’ve never been a purple or pink girl… As little, my fav color was always blue (it was always the color of my class in all schools I’ve been!!) and now it’s white, hehehe. I’ve never had a pink bedroom either…
    But I guess that pink-purple vs. blue is something we get since we are born. It’s usually the to options you have when you buy baby clothes and it’s something that stays with you all your infancy. You see those girls-boys colors in cartoons in TV, in your toys….
    I wonder what colors they use in other cultures!

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    1. Interesting point, Mercedes. Do African children get exposed to the pink/purple versus blue phenomenon? I think of the colourful attire African women wear or Tibetan women and wonder if that influences the children more in their colour choice.
      When you said school colour – do you mean a school uniform colour?

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  17. My mother despised little girls wearing pastel pink, so I didn’t have any clothes in pink. Jammies yes, but day clothes no. That being said, I looked good in purple so this worked in my favor. I also had lots of red and blue [as in denim] clothes.

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  18. Pingback: Mostly green . . . – Pictures without film.

  19. I’ve never made that connection between pink & purple! Along with almost everyone else who’s commented, I’ve never been a pink pastel person. I’ve found though, that a by-product of growing older is a gradual preference to muted colors – natural tones and faded blues. Still though, never pink for me 🙂

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    1. Interesting, Sandy. It appears to be more a Australian phenomenon to be set in the pink or purple camp. And muted tones as you get older – I wonder if colour states something more about us. Does it reflect mood or emotion, as Drake and I discussed on his post? I am thinking of the Goths – who wear black all the time. We mellow as we age, and maybe our colour preference aligns a little with that? I used to wear a lot of navy blue, but now prefer white and neutral colours.

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      1. I do think our color preferences depend on context – age, personality, company and lifestyle. As well, how we use or see color depends on context. I might not wear pink but I love the pink roses that’ll bloom in my garden every summer. As for black … have you ever seen how many black suits walk around the downtown financial district on a work day? It’s soul draining 🙂 Bankers are just Goths in business suits.

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  20. Pingback: Friday Photo Challenge – the colour pink – View from the Back
  21. Pingback: Friendly Friday – Pink – arrastoneglade

    1. Welcome to Friendly Friday! From the previous comments it seemed that there was not so many who liked pink or purple fans. Glad to meet another purple girl! I will pop over and check it out. Can’t wait to see what you have come up with.
      Amanda

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  23. Pingback: Friendly Friday Photos 50 Shades of Pink | Light Words
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    1. Aha! Another example of colour individuality! Green and blue seem to be seen quite differently by the eye. As green is made up of blue and yellow, perhaps that is why?
      Do you remember the dress that was posted around on social media a few years ago, that Snow and I were discussing – the one that was either black and blue or white and gold, depending on how your eye saw it?

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  28. Pingback: Friendly Friday: The Colour Pink – David M's photoblog

  30. I hated pink as a young girl and still avoid soft pinks as an adult. My choice would have been blue if asked. Even now, the clothes in my closet are mostly shades of blue. Purple is a favorite too… but blue-purples, not shades that are closer to red. I have to say, I sort of feel sorry for that dog… do you think it feels a bit foolish? 🙂

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    1. Ah, so I see you are in the purple camp, Janis. I am a fan of blue too – the Nordic or light blues, but lately, I have bought a few royal blue items, when they were in vogue a year or so back.
      I think the dog probably doesn’t care too much, but other dogs might give it a wide berth!

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