I am reading Pink: The History of a Color. To my dismay, I found, that at least in the west, it often polls as people’s least favorite color or one of them. And that it has an association with some nasty things. But I ADORE pink. Especially pink and yellow.
So how do I approach this in the chapbook I am researching for? I don’t think I want to evoke any negative connotations of pink. Maybe that’s my bias showing through, but some of it is really bad. And I don’t think it’s fair to treat a beautiful color as though it were a dirty thing. I recognize the eroticism of some shades of pink and will probably explore that in some of my poems. But pink is not a filthy thing, and I don’t want to discuss some of the things that it is associated with in my book. So this book has been illuminating for my research, but it definitely isn’t inspiring me. It says in the 1830s to 1850s, pink soap began to be made for women and so during that time period, pink had a connotation of cleanliness. That’s nice. But I associate cleanliness more with a sterile shade of white.
I want to present a nuanced, rich image of pink. I long to feel at one with the color. When I feel truly absorbed by and obsessed with a color, I feel it spiritually. Pink deserves a new lease on life. It’s more than Barbie. (Nothing wrong with the doll but I wouldn’t give you a penny for the movie!) It’s about more than the clean. It’s the paradisical.
Life at Home 