It all started when we were in elementary
school. Blue, green, brown, orange: boy
colors. Pink, purple, red: girl colors. If you
said your favorite color was pink, you were
laughed at, deemed a “girly-girl,” and shoved
to the side. When they found out you liked
pink, they taunted you because that meant you
ran like a girl, too, didn’t you? They’ll bet you
didn’t like tag, or mud, or running, or having
fun with your friends. No, you liked pink. You
were too lame, or stupid, or scared to have fun.
You were too feminine.
Then middle school came around and
everyone realized how stupid they had been.
Liking pink didn’t matter anymore, because
you were growing up. But suddenly, when you
liked the puppy-dog filter on Snapchat, wore
Ugg boots and drank Starbucks, you were
laughed at again, and given the same pity-
filled eye roll and light laugh you had received
in kindergarten. You were deemed “basic”
and left out because you fit in too well. Again,
you were too girly and too ditzy. You were
made fun of, not because of what you did, but
because of who else did it. You were basic, and
therefore feminine, and therefore to be made
fun of and belittled.
This pattern has emerged again with the
trend of “VSCO girls.” People who say “an’ I
oop” and “sksksksksksk,” carry Hydro Flasks,
have AirPods, use TikTok, wear scrunchies
and shell necklaces are “on-trend,” and yet
constantly laughed at. So why, once again, is a
trend so popular being demonized rather than
celebrated? This very newspaper has published
articles mocking VSCO girls while preaching
feminism. Even those with good intentions are
not immune to microaggressions and sexist
mindsets. It all goes back to the same reason
you told everyone your favorite color was
blue, and why girls can wear pants without a
thought, but boys are afraid of being beaten up
for wearing skirts. Why you only listened to
One Direction with headphones in, and why
you justified wearing your Berks because they
were comfortable, but not because you were
basic. Being on-trend with girls isn’t cool, it’s
degrading. When we make fun of VSCO girls,
we’re reinforcing the patriarchal norm that
being feminine is shameful.
We call ourselves feminists, but we laugh
at trends that are championed by girls because
it’s automatically considered embarrassing to
be associated with them. Rather than making
fun of VSCO girls, just like we made fun of
basic girls and girly girls, we need to turn
things around. For the sake of feminism, let us
wear pink.
