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| Photo by the Author |
Content warning: This article talks about experiences with bullying. Reader's discretion is advised.
"Pink isn't just a color. It's an attitude too." – Miley Cyrus
Walking home as I limp down the road, it was dark and my other eye couldn’t see properly. Everything that happened before I got here was a haze. I couldn’t think well, my hands felt clammy, and my hair was completely disheveled. Numb all over my body and trying to walk to my safest place because apparently nowhere was, I passed through a closed shop with a large window and there I saw how messy I was. There were several specks of blood on my shirt. This damned shirt. A piece of clothing that I thoughtlessly wore for another day of school. Innocuous and yet, seemingly offensive to some senior students to the point that I'd get beat up for it. All for a specific color?
Pink could mean a million different things: romance, love, nostalgia—it's just another color within the spectrum, another shade for another day. And yet, we can’t seem to see through basic stereotypes when it comes to colors. Pink is for girls while blue is for boys. Pink has always been associated with women and femininity, so when men adorn themselves with the color pink, it's seen by some as an invitation for others to hurl hurtful language toward them.
It's in these experiences that we commemorate the International Day of Pink, which all started when David Shepherd and Travis Price, students from Central Kings Rural High School in Nova Scotia, Canada, showed support after witnessing a fellow male student getting bullied and threatened for wearing a pink shirt to school on a supposedly fine day. It is a day held annually every second Wednesday of April, aimed to raise awareness on gender equality, discrimination, and bullying, especially towards the LGBTQIA+ community.
It's hard to believe that children still experience this level of discrimination just based on prejudiced notions regarding the color of their clothing, but it's an unfortunate reality that still happens today. Homophobia and transphobia have been around for a long time, their existence so deeply seeded and hard to uproot, that to exist as a part of the LGBTQIA+ community is seen as a transgression alone to many conservative members of society. As part of the community, it's scary to come out to society with my preferred identity, thinking about how much judgment would I get or if would I be ostracized for it.
Thinking that men shouldn’t like pink is an outdated mindset—and that goes for all the other gendered norms that affect the way everyone lives their lives. Stereotypes like these pigeonhole us into strict identities when we should be allowed to exist in a spectrum—to be allowed to be unsure and to change as we see fit to who we are. Stereotypes should not dictate who you are; you can deviate and have your own thing. The pink that you wear doesn't have to mean anything you don't want it to mean.
Days like International Day of Pink make me feel relieved that there are still people out there willing to defend the LGBTQIA+ community and raise awareness about bullying, and how it can affect someone for a lifetime. Initiatives like the one Shepherd and Price started make the world somehow a better place for everyone who has ever experienced prejudice and discrimination.
Bullying is a serious issue. If you have ever experienced, or are experiencing any form of bullying, please know that you are not alone. There will always be people who will be willing to help you. This International Day of Pink, let us be reminded of the importance of reaching out and standing up against the culture of hate that is trying to divide us from one another.
