Not All of Us Are Delicate Flowers

On occasion, my workplace has cultural awareness banners. Last month there was a banner for Black History Month. This month it is a banner for Women’s History Month.

And it’s in freaking pink!

Why is that? Why is it that whenever there is anything to do with women, the communication devices used almost always contain the color pink.

Pink is the color of softness and yielding. It is the color of calming and pacifying.

It is the color of a delicate flower.

While softness, yielding, and pacifying are some aspects associated with feminity, that is not all that we are.

We are also strong, fierce, and tenacious. We are natural problem solvers — and more. Even our nuturing comes from a place of power and strength.

By including pink in this banner (as well as other women-centric communication devices) there is a subliminal message being sent that women are to be soft and yielding. 

From our earliest years we are bombarded by messages designed to condition us to be subservient, to avoid the spotlight, to pacify and placate, to play only supporting roles, to put everyone else’s needs first and put our needs last, etc.

We are conditioned to be “sugar and spice and everything nice.”

“Little girls should be seen and not heard.”

We have been conditioned to allow the menfolk to have center stage and to stay in the background.

Basically, we have been conditioned to deny and suppress a major portion of what we are.

Once ALL women lay claim to the long-suppressed aspects of feminity, only then will we be an unstoppable force.