why is barbie pink so much gayer than other pinks in our culture?

[cimorene]

in the past month and my recent fandom excursions i've seen two japanese men dressed in hot pink/barbie pink polo shirts. this is really surprising to me, although in the past year and a half i've remarked numerous times how gay and metro men's fashion has gotten, going by what you see on the street but even more by what you see on the mannequins downtown (and most especially upscale mannequins like in stockmann!)("the store that swedish finns made for each other!", enligt shiroi_chi!)

i know men's fashion is gay here too right now. it's been pastels and cheerful eastery blues, pinks, lavenders, purples, candy stripes, capri pants, etc for a year or two¹. but still i've not seen BARBIE pink here, for all the powder pink and pepto-bismol pink and brilliant lilac.

and then i realised: the fact that that shade of hot pink is still off-limits² even here for male fashion, even for METRO male fashion, even when pink is really in, says more about western culture than the barbie pink shirts say about japan.

usually when a colour is in - like purple and green and grey are this season - you see all kinds of shades of it on the racks, because everyone wants to be seen to follow the trend but they don't want to look exactly identical to each other. that's why there are so many shades of purple scarves and green jackets in circulation this season, and why there were so many different military styles distinguishable in last fall's jackets.

so here's the question: why is barbie pink SO MUCH GAYER than all the other pinks in the west?  if you pause and think of it, it's arbitrary; and can it really be said to be due to barbie?



1. in fact, this season, with those giant caterpillar stripes and sweats and the resurgence of grey and khaki, could be argued to be the first traditionally masculine one in a while - but printed neck scarves, polo collars, and coloured velvet blazers are still in, too.

2. note: the colour is actually okay for ties, i'm pretty sure. and if it's purple enough to be fuschia it might be all right.

Comments

[elfiepike.livejournal.com]

i LOVE LOVE LOVE that ohno's stupidly pointy white shoes are SLIP-ON SANDALS OMG.

hottopic or someone similar had a shirt for a while that said "real men wear pink" or things like that; i caught a few kids at warped tour wearing it, but yeah, i know what you mean.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

oh, they ARE? i thought he'd just stepped on the heels and squished them.

[elfiepike.livejournal.com]

if that's the case, they're very LOW heels to begin with. ahahahahahahahaha. POINTY SHOES AMUSE ME SO MUCH. and arashi wears them so often!

[cimness.livejournal.com]

i can't figure if it's like an arashi thing or a japan thing, hmmm. yeah, their pointy shoes are so - well, fugly! but because it's arashi and because of what else they wear, also hilarious.