Pink Think (Book #25)

Pink Think: Becoming a Woman in Many Uneasy Lessons (Lynn Peril, 2002) is about like James Lileks' Gallery of Regrettable Food for women's advice manuals of the 1940's-70's, only with much more social analysis. Page-turning, funny, but sad too--especially since I doubt there's a woman alive in this country today who hasn't been pressured to conform to some degree to these ideals of "feminine" consumerism. In an afterword, Peril points out that "pink think" is still with us, in everything from The Rules to The Surrendered Wife to the fundamentalists at Vision Forum and their truly appalling sex-segregated lines of toys. (Not that I'm saying boys and girls are just alike. It's just when I look at their idea of appropriate books and toys for girls, I'm appalled at the idea of parents limiting girls as naturally bold and spirited as my own daughter to such a tame, restricted vision of womanhood. I mean, my daughter has dolls and stuffed animals...AND a set of pirate gear, including a sword and a cunning tricorn hat. She prefers sunglasses to an eyepatch, though. She's curious and she wants to have adventures. And...I just can't imagine telling her that swords, or dinosaurs, or puzzles, or anything else she likes are just for boys.)