Real mean may wear pink. But they sure don't like being surrounded by it.
Pink ties? Pink shirts? Sure. Wearing them shows that a guy is so confident in his masculinity that he can sport a "feminine" hue. But spending time in a pink room? That seems to make many men squirm.
The color gender gap came up this week in response to Pantone's "Color of the Year" for 2011: Honeysuckle, a vibrant hot pink with an orange undertone -- coral on steroids.
"It's a color with energy, at a time when we need it," said Leatrice Eiseman, director of the Pantone Color Institute (www.eisemancolorblog.com).
The female designers and color experts I interviewed all agreed that Honeysuckle is a great color.
"Did you talk to any guys?" my editor asked. Well, no. I hadn't. So I called Jim Noble (www.nobleinteriorsinc.com) of Minneapolis. He wears pink, he said, but he's not likely to give Honeysuckle a starring role in the color palettes he creates for clients. "I don't know many men who would warm up to that color."
This surprised me a little. My husband has no aversion to pink, or so I thought. I've bought him lots of pink clothes, most recently a fuchsia linen shirt. It looks fabulous on him! (He's a winter, with darkest brown hair and hazel eyes.) He said he loved the shirt. But he hasn't worn it much, I had to admit.
"It wrinkles," he said, when I asked him. "It always needs to be ironed, and I never have time." Hmmm. He seems to find the time to iron his other shirts.
