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Pink

I’ve been reading some Danish blogs’n’stuff lately since I was in Denmark and was alerted to a friend’s new blog and reminded of an old favourite. If you don’t read Danish, don’t click these two links.

This woman writes about pink technology and how it’s a total turnoff for most women. So true, so true. I cannot think of anything  more dreadful than a pink mobile phone with little sparkly thingies dangling from it.

She has also written an e-book about women and technology and divides us into Electronistas, Electroneutrals and Electronots. Well, as no surprise to any of my readers, I’m an Electronista. Trouble is, however, that I’m in reality far too old to be an Electronista, they are supposed to be younger than 35! Apparently, when you weren’t born into the tech age, you can’t be a true geek?

I’m the geekiest woman I know, maybe save one. In our home I do all things that have to do with technology, including opening envelopes from LoveFilm… I’m unafraid of technology but make no attempt to understand how it works and get annoyed when a tech product tries to tell me what to do and to prevent me from doing things it thinks I shouldn’t be doing (Windows) and when products are totally un-intuitive like my husband’s work Blackberry. When you’re used to an Iphone and prior to that to Nokia, the Blackberry seems devoid of logic. My Iphone is my best baby and I break out in cold sweat by the thought of losing it. It’s already a dinosaur, 1st generation, no 3G, 2 years old. But I adore it and use it for any thinkable and probably also some unthinkable purposes (no, you twat, not THAT unthinkable!!!).

My other best baby is my new Macbook Pro. I’m supposed to be able to make do with something much smaller and less powerful and that’s probably true. But my last MacBaby was exactly the same as this one and we had a loving relationship for 3+ years. So why change horses? (By the way, it still works and young son now uses it).

On my previous computer I had Microsoft Office installed. On this one I’ve avoided it so far, using the excellent Apple office package IWork and, mostly, Google Documents.

As you’ve guessed, because you’re so clever, I love all things Mac. I really can’t help it. When the Iphone first came out I tried to not like it, I tried to brush it off as yummy-tech for the Really Smart People. But I couldn’t. The thing about the Iphone has been that I have loved it more and more the longer I’ve owned it. There’s no grass that’s greener on the other side. Of course I’m now eying the IPad. I’m quite sure that I don’t want the first version. Mostly because I would like it as an E-Reader and it doesn’t have its bookstore ready for Europe yet. But also because I’d like to have Flash (rumour has it that the next version will sidestep Flash and use HTML 5. I honestly don’t know what that means, so I’ll just wait and see). And apparently you can’t use a USB stick on it but need Apple’s own special memory thingummies – I’m not sure I like that. But knowing Apple, all these things will be resolved in one of the next versions. That’s what happened with the Iphone; all the little things that irritated at first have been mended since. In the meantime, another rumour has it that Amazon will start giving away Kindles to all their Prime customers. Now THAT would be nice. Because I’m drowning in books and would very much like to stop buying pulped trees and start downloading.

Back to the pink. I so don’t understand why women will sink themselves and particularly their daughters into the Pink Pit. When I go shopping, both on the Interwebby (thanks Lulu) and IRL (in real life) I’m appalled at the amount of pink and glittery stuff offered to women and their daughters. It’s not that I can’t abide pink at all, I have a pink scarf somewhere and I used to have a pink t-shirt. In my bathroom I even have a line-up of pink coloured perfume bottles… What’s probably even more appalling is that it’s not just pink and glittery on the outside, very often it’s pink and glittery on the inside as well – understood in the sense that it speaks to women and girls as if they were morons and 2nd rate people.

As you may or may not have noticed, it was recently Valentine’s Day. Pink was everywhere. Where there was no pink was on Wired Magazine’s advice on how to win a geeky girl’s heart. Great advice, I would very much like to be at the receiving end of that kind of treatment and to some extent I am, thanks to my Dear Husband. But what so totally puzzles me is why this wouldn’t be a treat for any woman? Why does she have to be geeky (and why are there almost exclusively ads for men in Wired)?

In spite of the fact that I have two sons and a horde of nephews and only one niece, I’ve joined a network here in England called Pink Stinks. Go there and read about it. And, especially if you have daughters, do join!

6 tanker om “Pink”

  1. Hi Néné

    You are absolutely an Elektronista! Don’t worry about the age thing. I write “you often find the Elektronista between 20 and 35” but it is for sure not restricted to that age span.

    PS. As I understand HTLM 5 will make a big difference with web on mobile devices, but don’t ask me why or how ;-)

    Christiane

  2. Ah the Pink question – I always hated pink because I thought of it as a weak girl colour but that is just an association. I do however do glittery and would love to have purple glittery phones and laptops as I like to coordinate :)

    When I first saw the pink tools and things coming out I thought Oh my god no this is terrible and then I saw teenage girls and pre-teens who would never have picked up a hammer normally happily making cabinets. I stopped and thought about this and saw things slightly differently. The pink makes these objects normal – the fact that they are not normal is something that has to be slowely changed and I think the appearance of the pink tools and tech is actually a good sign.

    The other issue is mainly why assume its pink for girls? I know its marketed as such but I am also starting to see teen boys/preteens starting to want these things and to me this is great.

    My main issue over pink has been Jean though – I never liked pink made sure she had a mix of cloths and toys etc… She however loves pink, she’s 4 and she love dolls pretending to be mum etc… its all pink pink pink but she also wants pink tools and a pink laptop so she can build a pink spaceship so she can bring home bits of moon rock – the spacesuit would obviously be pink!

    So basically I suppose I’m saying that pink tech etc.. is a good thing and disagreeing. But I do agree over the geeky girl/normal girl thing – its very annoying.

    Sorry

    Sarah :)

  3. @Christiane – Thanks for “allowing” me to be an Electronista. I guess that the feeling of familiarity with technology just comes easier to some people than others!

    @Sarah – You don’t need to apologise for disagreeing. Disagreement is a good thing when it’s voiced so thoughtfully and politely as yours!

    As long as the choice is between grey/black/steel w endless specifications, meaningless to most of us and pink computers with lower-grade specs I beg to differ. It’s just not acceptable. The moment I can buy a yummy green laptop (or red or blue or, well yes, pink) that doesn’t come with Windows forced on me and a brick of a converter that weighs the same as the laptop, I’m there. It doesn’t have to be Apple and it doesn’t have to be “fashionable”. I have several nephews, some of them teens and pre-teens, and cannot for a moment imagine them wanting anything pink. But light weight, usable right out of the package, metallic blue or with funny, silly patterns, oh yes.

    Girls picking up a hammer, only when it comes in V&A flowery pattern, is downright silly. Either you need a hammer and use the one you have or you don’t. But there’s nothing wrong with the V&A pretty tools. Wonderful that practical things can now also look good. But it doesn’t have to be a girl thing!

    As for little girls and the Pink Thing – I believe it’s a stage. If I had a girl I’d allow it but not encourage. I think that if you suppress little girls’ pink longings they’ll return with a vengeance when they are teenagers. And then it might not be just pink clothes, but Barbie-like (pink) behaviour. And we don’t want that!

  4. It takes one to know one ;-)
    Thanks for the compliment!

    Pink – I’m not fond of the colour or the pink gadgets but I am very fond of a 6 year old pink-loving girl… so lately I’ve found that I don’t mind pink that much anymore.

    My laptop is red but I would never have bought a red one if it wasn’t good enough.
    And then there’s the little midnight blue Asus EEE.
    And the lovely black HTC Hero…
    Black iPod…
    Black camera…

    You are not the only 50+ electronista!

  5. Jean will actually be building her own computer as being chained to one OS is bad!!!!

    My point about the tools was that I could get girls who wouldn’t have been interested, interested – I agree its silly but its a slow change and I think the tools will speed things up – I personally like the purple flower ones *cough*.

    I’m currently into case mod-ing so getting a descent pink pooter wouldn’t be hard. I am however hoping it is a stage :/ But I decided I wouldn’t impose my taste on Jean my mother did that too me over matching pink twin-suits (yuck!).

    Sarah

    p.s. I was about to apologise for saying sorry but caught myself!

    p.s.s. boys wear pink but they do tend to call it other things I note! Like Salmon ;)

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