I wear pink hats. Pretty much exclusively. It wasn’t always that way, in fact, my first pink hat was a Mother’s Day ball cap from the Tiger’s “pink out” weekend last year. I wore the hat, and it disturbed some people.
Like, it really disturbed some people. Especially older men. That bothered me, because if I want to wear a pink hat, I should be able to wear a pink hat. So it became part of my persona. When I first started wearing pink hats, it was just because my pink Detroit Tigers hat was another hat in my collection. But now when when people ask me why I wear pink hats, my answer is a bit longer…
- I wear pink hats because I want gender-based stereotypes to die.
- I wear pink hats because there aren’t enough women in science, math, technology, and trades. I want to show them it’s OK to buck tradition.
- I wear pink hats because my eldest daughter is a carpenter, and I want that to be normal, not, “super unique.”
- I wear pink hats because I think pink hats are nifty.
- I wear pink hats because they make people uncomfortable, in a good way.
- I wear pink hats (and crazy shirts) so people notice a grown man wearing pink, and think about what that does or doesn’t mean.
- I wear pink hats because I want to be brave, and show my kids that bravery comes in many forms.
- I wear pink hats because I’m going bald. (That’s not specific to the pinkness of the hat, but why I wear hats in general, lol)
I’ve raised 3 wonderful daughters, the youngest of which will be 18 in a couple weeks. Being a father of daughters in our current society is frustrating. I don’t want my girls to have a skewed view of what it means to be masculine and feminine. I want them to be confident. I want them to follow traditional gender roles if they want to, and I want them to go directly against the grain if they don’t.
I want my kids to know that I can wear pink and bake cupcakes, and still be manly. And they can build houses and work on cars and still be girly. I want it to be OK for anyone to wear a pink hat, so I do, and so that’s why I’m often referred to as, “The Pink Hat Guy.”
I’m OK with that. 🙂
You wear pink hats because you are cosplaying Timmy Turner from The Fairly Odd Parents.
At least, that was my first thought.
“I wear pink hats because there aren’t enough women in science, math, technology, and trades. I want to show them it’s OK to buck tradition.”
How much women would be enough in your opinion?
“Enough” would be defined by a woman going into a field of endeavor, and NOT facing brick walls because of her gender.