I finally came around to listen to the latest episode of the excellent podcast Twisted Nether. This week they featured an interview with Nibuca of Mystic Chicanery and I enjoyed it a lot, until I suddenly realized they were talking about The Pink Pigtail Inn. OMG!
They were into a discussion about why Nibuca advertise that she's actually a female gamer, by exposing the word "chic" and having a clarifying subtitle to the name of her blog. She - as well as the hosts of the show - said that she would never consider using pink color in her blog layout. And then they mentioned Larísa as an extreme example.
I just felt that I had to comment a bit on this to make a clarification. I had no intention at all to expose any kind of femininity by picking pink as a profile color. On the contrary: I would never consider naming my blog with something like "mum", "chick" or "girl" like some other female bloggers have done, simply because I think that my gender isn't a big issue . And I sincerely hope that my readers don't come here because (or in spite of) the fact that I'm a woman, but because they like my writing.
The reason why my blog is pink is that I happened to pick pink pigtails for my main and first love in this game. But I can't believe that pink pigtails are so special that only female players would consider picking it? There are tons of guys out there playing girl gnomes. I can't believe you're all into green, black or blue?
When I renamed and redesigned my blog a couple of months ago I had a vision in my head. I wanted my blog to be just like an inn. Cozy, simple, warm, a layed back place where you could relax and share thoughts in a comfortable armchair in front of the fire. It was Zakesh (a male by the way) who came up with the name, which I thought was brilliant. And with such a name it was pretty natural how the picture in the top should look.
Why is the blog all in pink then, even some of the headings? Couldn't I leave the rest black?
They were into a discussion about why Nibuca advertise that she's actually a female gamer, by exposing the word "chic" and having a clarifying subtitle to the name of her blog. She - as well as the hosts of the show - said that she would never consider using pink color in her blog layout. And then they mentioned Larísa as an extreme example.
I just felt that I had to comment a bit on this to make a clarification. I had no intention at all to expose any kind of femininity by picking pink as a profile color. On the contrary: I would never consider naming my blog with something like "mum", "chick" or "girl" like some other female bloggers have done, simply because I think that my gender isn't a big issue . And I sincerely hope that my readers don't come here because (or in spite of) the fact that I'm a woman, but because they like my writing.
The reason why my blog is pink is that I happened to pick pink pigtails for my main and first love in this game. But I can't believe that pink pigtails are so special that only female players would consider picking it? There are tons of guys out there playing girl gnomes. I can't believe you're all into green, black or blue?
When I renamed and redesigned my blog a couple of months ago I had a vision in my head. I wanted my blog to be just like an inn. Cozy, simple, warm, a layed back place where you could relax and share thoughts in a comfortable armchair in front of the fire. It was Zakesh (a male by the way) who came up with the name, which I thought was brilliant. And with such a name it was pretty natural how the picture in the top should look.
Why is the blog all in pink then, even some of the headings? Couldn't I leave the rest black?
Well, I'm just a bit conservative when it comes to graphic design. I'm not comfortable with blogs which look like a toy store right before Christmas. If I was a webdesigner I would like to change the right column and give it a darker background, something like tree or leather, to improve the inn atmosphere. But since I'm not, I let the content speak for itself and leave the layout as it is for now. All pink.
You see, to me pink isn't necessary a girlish thing. Come on, it's 2008! Nowadays it should be perfectly possible to let a baby boy wear a pink shirt and a baby girl a blue one. At least in my opinion.
Anyway I'll stay pink and pig tailed. No matter what WotLK will offer when it comes to redesigning the hair of your toon.
I'm proud to be pink.
Edit: As Nibuca say's in the comment, I heard wrong. The poor blogger who was pointed out for the bad taste to use pink color wasn't me but Saresa. My bad! Anyway that doesn't change my opinion. That pink is just a color among others. Not necessarily something you use to point out your gender. I would really welcome some pink male blogs.
10 comments:
Ahh oops, to be clear I mentioned Saresa (http://www.destructivereach.com/) and Bre mentioned Lady Jess (http://lady-jess.com/).
You be pink! Get on with your bad self :) Though compared to Jess.. you're practically tame.
For me.. pink is -not- it.
Nibuca
http://chicanery.fibergeek.com/
Oh, my bad! I applogize, I must clearly tune up my volume.
Still it doesn't change my opinion that pink isn't necessary something you use to mark your gender. It's just a color among others. That was what I was trying to say.
I guess I'll have to start a "proud to be pink-club" together with the other lost souls... :)
I wonder who'll be the first male blogger to dare to join us...?
There isn't anything wrong with pink. For both jess and Sar, it works for them and fits well.
People who use pink in their layouts are not in bad taste. Same as people who use yellow, neon green. It is what they like and works for them.
The comment came about when Nib, frustrated at other podcasts and bloggers continued to refer to her as "he" even though she has made it known that she is a girl.
Does it really matter that she is a girl. No. That doesn't affect how she plays or is in the game. It is it just the polite thing to do.
Like if we called you "he" that doesn't have anything to do with your ability to write or play, but it may still bother you and you may gently remind us you are a girl :)
My joke about the pink layout was just to poke fun at the "if it pink it must be a girl" stereotype. It wasn't meant seriously. But like I said on the cast, pink isn't for me. Now, red....we can talk.
:D
I know of one blogger, a very male blogger, who is comfortable with pink. I am sure there are more :D
You can't insert images into comments, but I'd had to do something at lunch..
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b153/notosa/Proudtobepink.jpg
@Breana: I wonder if it isn't an overgoing problem that people just take for granted you're a guy if you play or blog about WoW. At least when it comes to blogging. A wild guess is that there are about as many female bloggers as male ones (though I notice a slight overweight for guys when I look at my blogroll). I think people are getting used to it.
In the game there are still so few women that it's sort of taken for granted that you're male in many situations. Sometimes I correct the misassumption - sometimes I won't.
Talking about stereotypes... red! are you serious? Must be a commie... :)
@pugnaciouspriest: I so wonder what it looked like, when I tried that link it said the picture was removed... Must have bee something!
Speaking as a male gamer, pink as girl-only seems very outdated to me. Or maybe us British are a little different - we do have a clothing company called Pink after all :) http://tinyurl.com/5gcml2
I see few problems with selecting pink on a webpage -- and it's better than all of the sites that are swamped in dark backgrounds. I'm tired of seeing black and red sites. Those have been staple for gaming sites since before Diablo became popular!
That said, a few years back orange was declared the new black in webdesign. The color looked awesome with any number of colors, including black, a variety of blues, tans, browns, and so on. Maybe you're just at the leading edge of redefining the new black on the 'net.
Pink = the new black!
Yay! I see a glorious future of the Proud to be Pink Movement.
We're just... misunderstood.
Thank you Cynra for your support!
I think I'm the male blogger Bre referred to. :p
I have a couple unquestionable pink shirts, but pretty sure I wouldn't do my blog in pink.
OTOH, it works for you (and a lot of other bloggers). And "Pink Pigtail Inn" is 100% win in my book!
@kestrel: thank you! With your wonderful taste for layout (which I finally can enjoy since you made it available to IE users) I'm sure you could make an awesome pink blog if you wanted to. How a blog appears hasn't so much to do with which color you pick as your profile, but how you actually use it.
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