Sarah Childs, Professor of Politics and Gender
An admission: last year I wore a bubblegum pink t-shirt. The occasion? Cancer Research’s Race for Life. If I told you that I only ever wear black and grey, you might be rather surprised. Indeed, I have publicly advocated the banning of pink clothes for girls as one of my “feminist wishes” – and only partly in jest.
Yet for one day, being part of a group – signalling that I was one of thousands of British women running in a women-only race – was worth, in my view, the sartorial horror of Barbie pink. Pink is a colour that so often reinforces the idea that what is pink is what is for girls – pink biros, pink razors, pink fairy dresses. It’s a colour that all too frequently constrains opportunities for girls and boys to be merely children.