It’s a Girl Thing (IGT)

Among sisters, there is always a pink sister and a blue sister. The first time I heard this I at once tried to determine which sister I am by comparing myself to my sister. It took me all three seconds to do it: growing up, I literally had pink bathrobes and my bedroom slippers were fluffy Snoopy ones with pink accessories, while my sister had blue robes and Snoopy bedroom slippers with brown accessories. Most of my stationary pads had then been Little Twin Stars – of course I had the pink one.

Then I recalled that I learned to drive the summer before second grade and my interest in cars started way before that. I remembered that I learned to identify a .45 calibre handgun from an uzi when I’d been in kindergarten, and hit a boy in my class in preparatory school for laughing at my undershirt which had itty bitty pink and blue flower prints on them.

I suddenly found myself @ odds if I were a pink or a blue sister, and spent that night lying in bed and wondering which I really am – petty thing, really, but it was one of those things that you couldn’t get out of your head until you’ve put a resolution to it. So I started a cons-pro list, pink vs blue, and here are some of those:

1. I loved running around with toy guns as a kid, but then I also had every imaginable cooking toy on earth, in triplicate;

2. I spent entire days playing with Barbie & Ken dolls, and days following my dad around as he polished and adored his bright yellow, split-bumper Camaro, imagining I was driving it;

3. In grade school my bedroom had been, literally, pink. The lower half was wallpapered in textured beige, the upper was candy pink. No kidding. Dominant in my bedroom had been a massive wooden cabinet housing my 32-inch tv, the 7-layer component system with the 4 full-size speakers, and in the place of honour, at the very top, were 4 basketballs (two orange, one black, one blue) signed by local basketball stars;

4. I moved to the mint green room in high school, and main things in my bedroom had then been stuffed toys (gifts), by although the basketball had long since been gone, across the same cabinet was a comfy chair, next to which was a pair of weights, which I used as I watched tv and had clutched in my hands as I danced around the room with mtv blaring from the tv;

5. one year I was on the basketball team, the other in the cheerleading squad

6. freshman year in college found me with super short hair gelled up, my beloved Juliet sunglasses (had them summer before freshman year straight from HK, titanium frame, fire lens, best sunglasses in the world and worth all 20thousand pesos of it; I still have it, still kicks ass) across my eyes. This was also the year I developed a started loving girly wrap skirts, trips to the beach and loved baking under the hot sun;

7. I had been driving a series of killer SUVs with smashing tyres and mags as I my black locks started going past my shoulders;

8. when I got into karting my waves & swirls was well past my back and I was already in love with reggae music & dancing at the beach;

9. now I spend most sunday afternoons playing airsoft, have a second dresser (that’s 15feet long) where an assortment of earrings, bracelets, necklaces, and jewelled clips are laid out on; I just smashed my latest punching bag which is in my veranda, along with my newly re-potted flowering, heavenly-smelling jasmine plant

Having spent a good deal of time going through this, I decided that, once again, I was not conforming to another stereotype imposed by society. I’m going to continue reading my books and enjoying my sports, loving my Shih-tzu and my car and guns. I had spent my 26 years refusing to be limited by reasons that do not make sense to me, and there is no reason to change now.

Dolls and frills and flowers are no longer the only things in the girls’ domain; and cars and boxing and guns are no longer exclusively for guys. Now, right alongside FTB (For The Boys) is IGT (It’s a Gril Thing), and the boundaries between each is becoming more blurred by the minute.

I can be a girl and still kick ass, I can be a productive member of society and still have fun, I can enjoy the finer things in life and not be a jerk. And guys who can cook are irresistible and those with great intellect even more so.

So, while I like pink, it will not keep me from liking other colours. Good thing my favorite colour is deep, rich, red anyway. I’m not a pink OR a blue sister; I’m Kay.