Comments on: News Outlet Startled by Professional Athlete Wearing Pink

By: » The Mets’ Marketing-to-Women Problem Bloomer Girls Blog

» The Mets’ Marketing-to-Women Problem Bloomer Girls Blog — Thu, 09 May 2013 22:55:16 +0000

[…] never thought about before. Although pink has been used negatively in men’s sports, and male athletes wearing pink is newsworthy in some mainstream media outlets, is it really that emasculating for male athletes to wear a color […]

By: Joanne

Joanne — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 18:40:00 +0000

To be fair, the Daily Mail write a LOAD of nonsense, they might well have written the same article if he’d had orange laces. Their stories tend to be utterly bizarre and without merit.

By: William Angel

William Angel — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 20:45:00 +0000

What’s the big deal about wearing pink? Here is a picture of a competitive cyclist wearing pink 30 years ago. http://flic.kr/p/7DJyVr

By: JontKopeck

JontKopeck — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 12:37:00 +0000

The original article has such a lingering attention to minutia that it
reads like an Onion article. It’s worth noting that the Daily Mail has a
habit of churning out copy to justify printing pictures of celebrities
and “celebrities” alike for the purposes of their reader’s oogling. Kind
of refreshing that they’d give that sort of attention to a grown man
rather than their usual target, fifteen year old girls.

By: ADub

ADub — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 19:39:00 +0000

Yes.

By: Cocojams Jambalayah

Cocojams Jambalayah — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 18:03:00 +0000

Research shows that men who otherwise embody high-status characteristics — which includes being light-skinned, ostensibly straight, attractive, athletic, and wealthy — can break gender rules with fewer consequences (see also, the fashion choices of Andre 3000 and Kanye). -Lisa Wade

I’m not sure whether I agree with this research or not since no research information was cited and I haven’t read any research on this topic. But I’m struck by the inclusion of “light skinned” in that listing of high status characteristics.

It seems to me that the descriptor “light skinned” usually refers to African Americans and other people of Black African descent. Whether a person is “light skinned” or not depends on what individuals or groups determine “light skinned” means. A person who I would describe as “light skinned” might not be considered light skinned by another Black person.

Also, although I don’t think she meant this, Lisa’s jutapositioning of a link to the article about Andre 3000 and Kanye West might be interpreted by some to mean that she thinks that Andree 3000 and Kanye West are light skinned. I think that most African Americans would consider them to be “brown skinned” – neither light [brown] skinned or dark [brown] skinned. Another referent that African Americans have used is red boned. Andre 3000 might fit that description, but I’m not sure of that being relatively unfamiliar with that celebrity. As to whether they are attractive or not, well… yes… but attractiveness is in the eye of the beholder.

By: WG

WG — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 16:03:00 +0000

Federer, however, is near the top of a hierarchy of men.”
Apparently I missed the memo. Lisa, do me a favor please; list all the people that are better then your average joe. Thanks!

By: Guest

Guest — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 12:52:00 +0000

Sounds like a faggot to me! Isn’t tennis abit gay anyway?

By: mimimur

mimimur — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 20:15:00 +0000

isn’t the hot pink a shout out for breast cancer?

By: mimimur

mimimur — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 20:12:00 +0000

If so, it still works in the same way that the post points out: the touch of pink is constructed as a sensation because of gender policing, and for the same reason only a high status man can sell it without the campaign backfiring.

By: Bryn R Williams

Bryn R Williams — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 14:13:00 +0000

I think the dynamics behind this may have been misconstrued. The message here is not about Federer, but about Nike. Federer is paid a lot of money by Nike to wear what they tell him to wear. Now, Nike may wish to promote the colour pink as an option for males (high-status or otherwise) but they are more likely to want a splash in a newspaper. I would be very surprised if the source of the photos and the comment was NOT a Nike press release.
It would be better to understand the choice of pink as a deliberate marketing ploy, exploiting naive gender stereotyping – that, after all, is what marketing does. This isn’t even a new or original technique. Stade Francais have been wearing a pink strip for years, and Cardiff Blues have a change strip of baby pink. The motivation for this is explicitly to generate pubicity by juxtaposing steeotypes. And this blog post is an example of its success.

By: Tom

Tom — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 13:22:00 +0000

The title of this article is so surreal, it sounds like something The Onion would post.

By: Boon

Boon — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 10:08:00 +0000

Like a Boss

By: Tusconian

Tusconian — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 02:27:00 +0000

To be honest, I see a lot more consequenses leveled at high-status men (as in, men in very visible, high status fields, as opposed to men who are simply wealthy but people take no particular note of) than at average guys. When I was in high school, not very long ago at all, wearing a pink shirt, or pants with pink detailing, was very popular with boys and young men, especially those who embraced “preppy” fashion, and from what I’ve noticed, while it’s less trendy than it was 5-6 years ago, it hasn’t fallen so far out of fashion that finding a pink men’s polo would be difficult. High school is hardly a safe haven for mockery of clothing or perceived homosexuality, but that particular choice would not paint a boy as a target. “Real men wear pink” was a logo on t-shirts all over the mall in stores like Hot Topic, so it wasn’t confined to just the kids who dressed exclusively from Ralph Lauren either. In very “preppy” circles, it has not gone out of fashion at all with men who wear bright color at all.

Plus, I don’t buy that posting a thousand pictures of a high profile, successful man that women consider attractive wearing something says to average men that they can’t get away with it. That may be the intent of the Mail article (wouldn’t be surprised), but that’s not how young consumers operate. If a famous person who could even distantly be deemed a sex symbol wears anything usual, the result is usually “if I run out and buy it, maybe my image will come off as similar to theirs.” When I was a kid, young girl’s fashions were dominated by relatively modest clothes…until Britney Spears’ Bellybutton became a celebrity completely independent of it’s owner, and suddenly there were tube tops in every store and middle schoolers were getting their navels peirced. When rappers and male singers started to wear suits and polos and skinny jeans, teenage boys abandoned baggy pants and baseball caps for more “polished” looks. If this has any effect on the average dude at all (honestly, this is such a minor thing that I doubt anyone will actually notice unless they read the Mail article), it’s that stock in black and pink Nike headbands will go up.

By: Stop the Presses: Dude Person Wearing Pink Shoes (Get the Fainting Couches & Smelling Salts Ready!) « Feminist Philosophers

Sat, 19 Jan 2013 02:16:48 +0000

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