Pink Stinks

I really can't see the point of this campaign or the recent support it's received from a Government Minister. If girls like pink - what's the problem? I read all the books with all the conventional stereotypes when I was a child and my favourite colour was blue. It never occurred to me that I had to stay at home and bring up children or that women shouldn't have careers. But that says more about my parents' teaching than anything else. I helped my Mum when she was making cakes and was cooking Sunday lunch for the whole family at 14. I hated housework - but so did my Mum. But we used to discuss anything and everything at home so I was never in any doubt that I could have opinions and express them.

Once I could read on my own no one tried to censor my reading so I read the Jennings School stories, William books, the Chalet School and the Abbey School series as well as many non fiction books. By 10 or 11 I was reading Georgette Heyer and Dennis Wheatley - yes his black magic books. Did I grow up to do a pink and fluffy job only suitable for girls? No I didn't. So I read a mixture of books and preferred dressing in trousers though I did like pretty dresses - as long as they weren't frilly. There wasn't much pink around - or maybe my Mum didn't like pink. I think the pinkstinks campaign may have a point when it talks about the over emphasis on appearance and celebrity but otherwise why focus on a colour? (www.pinkstinks.co.uk)

I'm starting to wonder whether stereotypes are more pervasive now than they used to be. I hate the emphasis on appearance which pervades everything. I also dislike political correctness - though some things are called political correctness when they're really just common decency and politeness. As for the fuss about Thomas the Tank Engine - words fail me! I love those train books they are brilliant stories and very moral. Thomas gets punished if he does something wrong or stupid - what could be wrong with that? No there aren't many female characters - maybe more now that there used to be. I remember Annie and Claribel the coaches but as far as I can remember they used to keep Thomas in order not the other way round.