Pink, so gentle. A beautiful red, like the beautiful roses in Grandma's garden.
I'm sitting on a bench in the garden. It's warm, the sun is shining through the leaves and leaving patches of light on the grass.
“How about ballet?” No, that's not for me. I have shoulder-length hair and wear pants instead of skirts. With short hair, you can't do a pretty bun like ballerinas always have. “No, nonsense. Anyone can dance ballet if they want to.” But my legs wouldn't look particularly nice in tights either.

For me, it was normal not to wear pink. Since elementary school, I had tried to banish it. Now it kept coming back. On my For You page, as a reel, or on Pinterest, pink. I dyed my hair pink. Or rather, strands of it. I love it, but now I'm seeing more and more TikToks about pink.
What I mean is the “pink stereotype.” All the clichés associated with pink and girls. Because that's the current color for girls.
But it's not just pink that stands for girls. Girls like horses, cute little animals, maybe unicorns or Barbies and dolls. But mostly pink. Dolls for girls, so they can practice for later, when they have their own children and a husband. Why else? Now they all say that it was never really about the color, but how we are perceived. Because we are taught early on what it means to wear a certain color or hairstyle or similar. Everything “feminine” is automatically weaker than everything “masculine.” So pink is also below blue. It's friendly, reserved, and well-behaved. And all that in one color. Boys and blue can just be. Be whatever they want. Because they're boys. They'll become men later. They play with cars, and while girls get a play kitchen, boys get a toy workbench. Instead of a doll, boys get a ball. Pants are okay for girls. But please, boys, don't wear dresses. A pink dress was not a pink dress to me. A pink dress was an identity to me. A girl. Perfect. But I couldn't have achieved that with a pink dress. At least, that's what I believed. I found everything about myself too much. Sometimes too many feelings. Sometimes too much fat on my belly. And my arms are wider than hers. I'm tall and I stand out. That's not a girl. Not a pink girl.