Real Men Wear Pink

Remember these words, as I will never say them again … I was inspired on Saturday by the Ryder Cup.

I’m not a golf person – my sidekick E and his whole family love golf. They love playing, they love watching, they love talking about it. I sort of sit there and smile, not knowing or caring what they are talking about. Therefore, I was a bit disappointed when the Ryder Cup was on the TV when I woke up, and E was entrenched on the couch, eyes glued to the tube, cheering for Team Europe (E and his family only recently became American citizens, having emigrated from England about 20 years ago). I was even more disappointed when I realized this was an all-day event, and it was E’s turn to travel to me this weekend (after two years of living together in DC, E and I are now in a long-distance relationship between Jersey and DC). My inner Shirley Temple stamped her foot, screwed up her face and made a whiny cry. E was quick to point out, “I won’t be watching this all day, it ends at 7.” … said at noon, three hours in.

However, after sitting down and watching for a few minutes, I noticed something great! Team Europe was wearing PINK! And not just a polite, acceptably-masculine-in-spring pale pink, but a BRIGHT, BOLD magenta. E told me that yesterday Team Europe wore a lime green – how cool! This got me thinking about how boooooring Team USA’s colors have been – read, black, navy stripes. Yes, patriotic and team-y, but boring. I realize that Europe is not one country, but you have to hand it to them – they have great taste!

So here it is – real men wear pink. Team Europe in the Ryder cup. The Italian soccer club, Palermo, wears pink at home and away. Everton of the English Premier League has adorned pink and pink-striped alternate uniforms in recent memory. FC Copenhagen’s alternate uniforms are neon pink. Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic, tennis’s dominant players in the last ten years, have sported pink in tournaments all over the world. The conclusion is obvious – these teams and athletes show that pink is a color of strength, a color of the most manly of men, and a color that is not owned by Barbie and women’s teams only.

On our side of “The Pond,” the National Football League covers their fields, their cheerleaders and their teams in bright pink in recognition of breast cancer awareness. The NBA D-League hosts breast cancer awareness events, where their players wear pink uniforms. Some F1 racing cars are pink, and a few Indy 500 drivers have pink suits. While Europeans are fearless with their use of pink in sports kits, the US is seriously lacking in color ferocity and embracing pink. The National Hockey League, Major League Baseball, and the National Basketball League do not wear pink whatsoever! In the coming seasons I would like to see more pink, especially in baseball – “America’s Pastime” and in basketball, a sport that many women play and enjoy. It wouldn’t take much – maybe pink chinstraps for hockey, pink socks and wrist bands for basketball, pink batting gloves for baseball. All of this is even MORE appropriate given that October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month! Therefore, I challenge athletes and men to be manly, to wear color fearlessly, and to show that real men wear PINK!

Image from http://www.rilean.co.nz/content/images/173/400x400normal/WRC_Men_in_Pink_Credit_Teaukura_Moetaua_Sports.jpg

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