From G's to Gents

"He's tough, tough pink."

I was watching From G's to Gents the other night, and on this particular episode their challenge was about how they dressed. Before their challenge, they went through the suitcases of all of the G's, telling them what was acceptable and what wasn't. One of the guys said that he had a unique and fashionable style, but everyone else was laughing at a pair of pink sunglasses he had. Someone actually asked him: "Do they sell these for men too?" Thats when another G said the quote above - "He's tough, tough pink." It was funny to me how one color represents so much to everyone. There is even another character that had some oddly striped man capris and pink, orange, and green in his cornrows. Another G said referring to him that he was scared for him to to pick out his outfit for the challenge since he only wore black, red, and blue and this other guy wore all these strange colors. Especially for these supposedly tough, rough men, color means a lot. Just wearing the color pink in even something small like a pair of shades undermines their masculinity. My mother's fiance would die before he put an ounce of pink on him, and this was even when men had their little phase where they actually wore pink in button up shirts, t-shirts, and ties. Pink is so strongly tied to women that men cringe at the thought of it. Its funny though, how blue and black may not be a woman's favorite colors but she isn't ridiculed for liking them. However, looking around my room which is drowned in the color pink, if I were to go into a female's room that had the same item as I but in a navy blue or something, I would assume she was a tomboy. The association of color with gender is just a minor representation of how we associate other characteristics with gender, simply categorizing everyone.