Think Pink

One of the slogans flaunted by Pink, the Victoria’s Secret sub-brand that caters to younger shoppers, is “Life is pink, pink is life” — a cute declarative phrase with a strong point of view. You can argue with it if you wish, but I’d say don’t. Because lately, surprisingly, pink is taking over.

Long a namby-pamby shade favored chiefly by women and bubblegum aficionados, pink is now red hot. It’s everywhere and embraced by nearly everyone, set afire by the huge success of Barbie, the 2023 film starring Margot Robbie. Since then, it has been ascendant not just throughout popular culture, but also in architecture, advertising, men’s clothing, sports, transportation, and Christmas trees. Yes, I said Christmas trees. Stores could barely keep the pink plastic ones in stock last year.

Growing up in a mid-century modern house in mid-nowhere America, it’s no wonder that for decades I regarded pink as little more than a color confined to bathroom and kitchen decor. Worse, I saw it as a tint that refused to commit. It could have been garnet or a deep cranberry, but it chose to be milky and thin. A color that had wasted its effort, I thought.

My views on pink slowly evolved until about a year ago, when, to my eyes, the previously despised palette suddenly became desirable. How did this happen? I’m not sure, but: Lionel Messi, the world’s most famous (and therefore most photographed) soccer player, signed with Inter Miami, a team that wears pink uniforms. Ah! Ads for pink men’s suits began popping up in magazines. Whoa! Even Porsche, that most masculine of automotive brands, chose to crank up its rollout of pink-ish sports cars. Damn! (To be fair, a global poll of Porsche fans found that 47 percent thought the color distasteful. I wonder if Americans who craved those flashy pink Cadillacs of the Elvis era would accept the “Ruby Star Neo”-painted Porsches of today.)

Who still isn’t all in on pink? Who are the holdouts? Well, bank robbers for sure. If the explosives hidden in stolen currency detonate, they mark the perp in an ugly Pepto-like stain. Incriminating, not to mention mighty embarrassing.

What is undeniable is that we are currently in a period of peak pink. It is so deeply embedded across our culture that thinking of it mainly as a pretty femme color with romantic undertones no longer does it justice.

Among other things, it’s believed that bright pink helps sell. It pops. It is not shy. Lisa Sharkey, senior vice president and director of creative development at HarperCollins, the book publisher, told me in an email that there’s a clear trend toward pink book covers, with good reason. “The color signals hope and promise and life and liveliness,” she said. “Who doesn’t want that? After a dark period, which included a deadly pandemic, it’s no surprise that pink has risen in prominence.”

Strangely, it was only a hundred years ago that pink was generally associated with infant boys, not girls. At the time, it was thought that blue was more delicate, more feminine. (Go figure.) Eventually, that changed. We have begun to outgrow many of those old-school gender perceptions, and today it’s considered fashionable — dashing even — for guys to liven it up with a spot of pink in their wardrobe.

Ultimately, pink is a color for our time: confident, conflicted, and bold. Occasionally misunderstood. In sum, complicated. The very definition of America 2024.

In the March/April issue, Cable Neuhaus wrote about the power of celebrity.

This article is featured in the May/June 2024 issue of The Saturday Evening Post. Subscribe to the magazine for more art, inspiring stories, fiction, humor, and features from our archives.