Pinkstinks is a campaign and social enterprise that challenges the culture of pink which invades every aspect of girls’ lives.
Their site is for parents and non parents alike, and aims to gather support, promote discussion and ultimately to mobilize that support to influence marketeers and the media about the importance of promoting positive gender roles to girls.
“Research tells us that self-esteem amongst girls is at its lowest ever and we are asking WHY?
We believe that body image obsession is starting younger and younger, and that the seeds are sown during the pink stage, as young girls are taught the boundaries within which they will grow up, as well as narrow and damaging messages about what it is to be a girl.”
Emma and Abi Moore behind PinkStinks, were featured in the Guardian in December.- the campaign for real role models – challenging the culture of pink by focusing on brilliant women to inspire girls to achieve great things – PinkStinks aims to counteract the slurry of media obsession on women who are ‘famous’, ‘thin’ ‘rich’ or ‘married to famous men’, by celebrating those women that we see as inspirational, important, ground-breaking and motivating.
Read their blog and follow them on twitter.
Check out their sister site Cool To Be Me :
“We believe that the media gives narrow and damaging messages to girls, and celebrates unobtainable beauty ideals over real achievement. Pinkstinks has been highlighting the issues and starting the debate. Cooltobe.me is where we offer something different to kids and their parents. We believe that role models are important and it is here that we will be celebrating many of the fantastic women and their skills, ambitions and strengths which go beyond just looking pretty being thin and having money.”
“I am nine years old and I think PinkStinks is my voice. Girls like me shouldn’t be forced to like pink. Can you think of a good name for girls who don’t want to be girly girls but aren’t tomboys?”
“carry on and make it easier for girls like me to try different things without feeling like an outsider.”
a young mother asked “Well done for raising this issue and giving us parents a focus for change, to raise our daughters to aspire to dignity, goodness and equality rather than big boobs and tiny waists!”
Absolutely brilliant.
Redjotter 
It is such a hard mindset to change. People have always idolised the rich and famous. If you take actresses for example there are always ‘real’ people that are introduced into these roles yet its still the shiny, thin, glamourous ones that get publisised. The public hunt out such people.
To change peoples opinion is going to be hard but good on the for trying.
I have some radical femininsts among my FB friends who’ll like this, as will the radical males as well
It is great to get the message out that girls can be inspirational, important, ground-breaking and motivating. This is what our Girl Geek Speaker Series is all about. But lets not say that being a ‘girly girl’ is negative. There is room for all kinds of women to break the media gender stereotype. You can be girly and smart too you know!
Thoroughly support Pink Stinks. Meantime I remember a discussion of the topic of Pink on QI recently which suggested that Pink was the accepted colour for baby boys until as late as the 1920’s (can this really have been so?) while Blue had always been for girls. Though why should any colour be gender-specific?
Great post,
I’ve often chatted to my youngest sister about this- and I do get really sad thinking about the lack of role models that are celebrated for young women to look up to. So many great things have progressed in terms of gender issues but mainstream media seems to have stumbled a little. Inspiration and aspiration are vital for young people- but in a media frenzy of WAGs, weddings and weight loss real damage has become a real reality. Celebrating brilliant women and encouraging discussions that argue that mainstream media does not need to be mainstream thinking will help I’m sure. Tricky, but sites like this will make all the difference.
L
I’m not convinced. I completely agree with the aims, “promoting positive gender roles to girls” is important, and “counteract[ing] the slurry of media obsession on women who are ‘famous’, ‘thin’ ‘rich’ or ‘married to famous men’, by celebrating those women that we see as inspirational, important, ground-breaking and motivating” is something we all need to do. But … I am not convinced that the problem is young girls’ fantasias of pink, or (as the tshirt pictured above proclaims) that young girls shouldn’t pretend to be princesses. In my experience young girls (4, 5, 6) love to dress up in pink princess frocks for parties, despite the concerns of their parents. Our role isn’t to censure that, but to celebrate with them, to sit with them watching hours and hours and hours of back to back Disney movies or whatever it is that girls want to do. That way they’ll learn that what they enjoy is fine, what they want is OK, and hopefully it’s those messages that they’ll still believe long after they have grown out of wearing pink and believing in princesses.
Dumbledad – I’m with you on this one. Lets support girls to be whoever they want to be. Liking a bit of sparkle doesn’t make you stupid!
Wow. Thank you all for your comments guys. I don’t think it has anything to do with being stupid as such – I totally agree that some of the most inspirational women in the world probably grew up in pink bedrooms and have pink handbags today. BUT I think this about showing that there is another option – you don’t have to be a princess to be a successful girl. It is a route for parents who don’t feel as confident as other parents in celebrating what their children do. I think that being a princess ‘nowadays’ is very different to what it used to be ( ok now i feel old ) but really – we have 5 year olds obsessed with Bratz who are half naked 95% of the time. We have 70% of primary 7 girls dreaming of being a model or a reality TV show. I think it is a good thing that Pink Stinks is challenging this.