Heart-shaped, pink ear muffs

A day of freezing temperatures, increasing the ice on the paths and roads. But no snow. Not here in Surrey, anyway.

Today I walked into Farnham via the main road, to see the state of the footpaths (and because I’m still sore from my slip yesterday) wearing, of course, my Spikeys. Hale Road was all slushy, no doubt from the gritting and salt. The path has also been salted and is pretty easy to walk on until you come across the big slabs of ice every now and then. I saw a few people slipping and sliding. The cars were all driving slowly (very unusual) and there was a lot of people walking (also unusual). The world was strangely peaceful.

I picked up my glasses and went into Starbucks where no-one noticed them. Last week Alex gave me a little book of tickets which give me 50p off each day. Combined with my Starbucks card (which entitles me to free extras) I get a very good deal for a month of coffee. I sat and read some Jeeves then went into Waitrose. It was much more like an ordinary day with people clearly coping with the snow after a few days living with it.

As I left Waitrose I spotted a young mother and two little girls. Each of them was dressed in pink…completely. The girls were both under five. As well as the little pink jackets and little pink trousers, upon their heads were pink, heart-shaped ear muffs! They didn’t look particularly cute. In fact they looked extremely silly. Just the sort of thing a little girl would spot at the point of sale and beg to have. They looked like they cost about £1. All plastic and excessively fluffy. They were all off to the park and each girl held a small sled. And, yes, they were also pink. It did occur to me that the mother had no chance of losing them in the snow.

I used to think we gender dressed our children and that was what explained a girl liking pink and a boy liking blue but I have it on good authority that little girls are quite capable of making their own minds up when it comes to a desire for pink. This is clearly a fashion thing as it hasn’t always been the case. Though the eye piercing shades of pink you see these days have not always been available in such luridness.

I have read a theory that claims that the feminization of the colour pink was due to the Nazis because they made homosexuals wear an inverted pink triangle therefore feminizing it. Historically, in the 1920s gender colours were the other way around. Pink was deemed as more appropriate for boys as it was close to red and girls were encouraged to wear blue because of the Virgin Mary. And then, in the 1940s, for some reason, it switched around. Some people claim that females prefer pink because it reminds them (subconsciously) of ripe fruit and healthy faces. Though I’m not sure why only females would fancy ripe fruit and healthy faces. Some sociologist claims it comes from hunting and gathering and knowing how to spot the ripe fruit.

Whatever the associated preferences, in studies made across cultural groups, most people, regardless of gender, prefer shades of blue to any other colour group. So there. Though personally, my favourite colour is yellow, I think I prefer looking at green. As my grandmother always said, green is the most natural colour, soothing and calm. And, as anyone who has worked at a computer for long stretches knows, if you stop every hour and stare out the window at the trees, your eyes will refocus and not hurt so much at the end of the day.

This gender colour thing is something that has interested me for a while. I like pink and I don’t see why it should be a problem…though, clearly I know it can be. I think it’s a happy, fun colour. Does that make me a girl? I don’t think so! Would I wear a pair of bright pink heart-shaped ear-muffs? Not on your life.

Anyway, the snow has caused Mirinda to stay in town this weekend which means I have no excuse but to complete my essays. So I shall get back to them. But, before I do…here’s my new glasses.

Sorry, mum, I know I need a shave.

PS: In a strange case of coincidence, tonight on QI the entire show was about gender differences and they spent a long time discussing the blue/pink thing! And, even stranger, I never normally watch QI but it was on while I was having tea.