‘Pink’ Stories Are Some of the Most Important of Our Time
I read this article thinking about the op-eds our class is writing and I was wondering what you guys think. The Op-Ed Project is trying to increase the range of marginalized voices presented in the media. They recently found that while the amount of women writing and publishing Op-Eds has increased recently, women seem to only be writing about “pink” topics defined as ”
- Anything that falls into what was once known as “the four F’s”: food, family (relationships, children, sex), furniture (home), and fashion;
- Women-focused subject matter, such as women-specific health or culture;
- Gender/women’s issues; or
- A profile of a woman or her work in which her gender is a significant issue of the piece.”
Personally, I don’t have a huge problem with this. Who better to write about women than the women themselves? And when it comes to traditionally female issues (reproductive rights and health, child rearing, sexual violence and violence against women, etc), sometimes it seems as though the only people who care enough to speak out are the women themselves.
I think the issue with “pink” topics is that they are still considered pink. As Amanda Marcotte pointed out, if you write about murder it’s crime but if you write about rape it’s pink. The mere fact that we consider these issues confined to women says a lot about societies perception of gender. Women are still separate and deserve their own separate category. There is nothing wrong with women writing about women’s issue, but the way that men seem to avoid these topics is also a red flag. Does writing about contraceptives (a healthcare issue) mean you are less qualified to write about healthcare? Does writing about rape mean you are less qualified to write about crime? Does writing about beauty and fashion really mean that you aren’t qualified to write about politics, business, or “more serious” topics?
The issue here is all about perception and these attitudes make it clear that we still draw strong lines between what is feminine (and what should interest women) and what is masculine (what should interest men). We know that women are generally interested in beauty, fashion, relationships, children, and women’s issues but we also know that women are concerned about the economy, interested in politics, and very capable business women. In other words, women are welcome to be interested in world news and what men read but men are not necessarily inclined to be so interested in what women read. Why should men be any less interested in reproductive health than women? Why should men (who are generally the perpetrators) be any less interested in pieces about rape culture and sexual violence? Because society tells them they have no reason to take interest in “women’s issues.” But the fact is, women’s issues are human issues.
– Lindsay