Barbie Pink!

With the global PR tsunami pushing people into theatres to see the new Barbie movie, it seems that the colour pink is everywhere.

Looking at relatively unsaturated, light shades of pink is definitely relaxing and may help us effectively manage our diets—so pink has pluses, even without its cultural signalling power, which is more or less positive, depending on your worldview.

In “The Colour Pink and How the New Barbie Film Might Subvert Our Expectations” (found at bbc.com, 2023, https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20230718-the-colour-pink-and-how-the-new-barbie-film-might-subvert-our-expectations) Clare Thorp notes that pink is “strongly associated with women” and  “It wasn’t always the way. . . . the girl-pink/boy-blue divide didn’t set in until the mid-20th Century.”  Thorp also reports that “Despite long being associated with submission and passivity, the colour pink has been reclaimed, symbolising subversiveness—which is embraced in the new Barbie film. . . . This inclusive and feminist take on Barbie – which also fully celebrates pink – looks set to be one of the biggest films of the summer, if not the year – and has the potential to be the most successful film ever by a female director. There’s nothing delicate, dainty or frivolous about that. Pink has rarely felt more powerful.”