Women Don't Wear Pink!!

 

Women are construction workers, police, and firefighters. Women work the manufacturing line. Women build shit.  Women pull wire through buildings and rebuild engines. Women don't wear pink. 

We are not pretty little dolls to be coddled and put on the shelf.  Women have to work twice as hard to get half the respect.  And we are still expected to pick up the kids and put dinner on the table.  How one-sided this expectation is.

The day before a triathlon I was walking around the vendor booths to see what they had to offer.  One was a shoe vendor.  I asked him if he had any that were NOT pink.  He looked at me strangely, “No this is a woman’s event.  We only brought the woman’s line.”  After spending a moment glaring at the ass hole, “Why are they all pink?”  He was confused.  I glanced around the vendor hall.  Over 600 women were participating in this event.  “Wow look at that, NO PINK.”  I gave him the bird and walked away. 

Why is it that you can always tell the women's department by the light fluffy fabrics and all the pink? 

Why is everything light, soft, and gentle?  When in history was the expectation of getting work done less for women than men?  Even during the age of aristocrats, the housemaids outnumbered the field hands.  They wore durable clothing.   The kind that could and did withstand the heat of a sweltering kitchen, the soot of many fireplaces, and the toils of daily labor.  And they did not wear pink.

When you think of a power suit, do you think pink?  Why when a man wears a suit, he handsome, all business, and ready to get things done/close the deal?  But when a woman puts on a suit she is criticized, and her outfit is picked apart.  She must have an agenda.  Scorn is assumed. How dare she!  How dare she abandon the demeanor of the silent purity little thing in the corner.

Women typically feel temperature changes more than men and are forced to wear silk.  Thin, lightweight, breezy fabrics to show off our bodies.  On a stroll through a department store, the pure little blouses and light flowy skirts are on the racks next to the sweaters.  Many even come as sets.  The designers know that by purchasing this outfit women are going to be cold.  So, they automatically throw in a sweater.  What the FUCK!!!   Just be better. Just design better clothing.

Needing clothes for work, I stopped at the local store, you know the one with “Super” in the title and great deals.  The point is, that it isn’t a fancy high-end, boutique, specialty place.  The clothing section included casual, dress, work, sport, men, children, and of course the women’s section.  I tried to find clothes in the women’s section.  The lightweight fabric would not last a day at my job. 

Fake pocket seams, lace, and ribbons.   How is that going to work 20 stories up on a high-rise under construction?   What does flowing fabric accomplish when sweating pipe? Even for the small, few of us that do have office jobs and can be careful with our clothes all the time, why would you want to?  Why do women have to buy the throwaway season outfit when men get the stuff that lasts?  And get to pay less for it.

Why should I have to wear high heels to drive a taxi? Or ware men’s clothes.  Why are my other options only pink? 

PS.  Do I have to go into the whole pocket debacle?