Pink on the Screen: Erotic and Non-erotic

Pink seems to have made a comeback this year. In addition to "Barbie", which is famously associated with the color, "No Hard Feelings" features Jennifer Lawrence in an iconic pink tight dress as a way of manifesting her bold and radical attitude towards sexuality. More interestingly, two movies that don’t seem to have anything to do with pink, "El Conde" and "Flora and Son", also incorporate fluorescent pink in their posters, possibly an eye-catching design choice.

Barbie; No Hard Feelings; El Conde; Flora and Son

The topic of pink on the screen is definitely worth exploring. From Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn to characters like Umbridge in "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" and Villanelle in "Killing Eve", actresses dressed in pink have made deep and beautiful marks in the history of film and television. A video essay has briefly traced the history of pink on the screen, noting that pink was once considered the most feminine color, representing either purity or flirtation. Over time, though, pink has become a symbol of subversion and freedom.

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Gentlemen Prefer Blondes; Funny Face; Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix; Killing Eve

However, in my opinion, if we are to distinguish pink more boldly, there are ultimately only two types of pink in movies: the erotic and those devoid of it. These two categories also imply the black-and-white situation of women under the male gaze, where a woman is either portrayed as a seductive temptress or a chaste puritan. The film "No Hard Feelings" represents the former, while "Barbie" the latter.

Erotic

The association between the color pink and feminine traits is not intrinsic. Long ago, Pink was once considered a color for boys, and European noble families frequently used it to adorn their male children. Even young noble men, who were powerful and influential, enjoyed wearing pink clothing. It was only after World War II that pink has gradually become feminized and associated with eroticism. Today, it is common to see women choose pink without a second thought when they want to seduce a man - just like what happens in "No Hard Feelings". This pink color, symbolizing sexual desire, is often accompanied by dim lighting to establish an ambiguous atmosphere in visual representations, like the mirrored club where Jane works in "Paris, Texas", where alluring women with heavy makeup wait to be selected by customers.

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Paris, Texas

It is worth mentioning that whilst pink color may hold meanings such as purity, chastity, and innocence, it still harbours the potential for transformation into erotic representations. Just like various ladylike images on the screen, they ultimately have to conform to the heterosexual norms under patriarchy by entering into the system of marriage and love. This also explains why Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn, despite representing seductive pink and pure pink respectively, still end up as two representative objects of the male gaze.

Non-erotic

Chastity and eroticism are not opposing two sides of the same coin. On the spectrum of symbolic meanings of pink, chastity is inherently eroticism that is temporary suppressed. So what makes the side opposite to eroticism, namely the non-erotic? Jinhua Dai, a Chinese film scholar, once noted that female characters in Hollywood films are often shaped into four types: sluts (physically seductive), sacrificial lambs (innocent and pure), mother figures (either good or evil), and witches (possessing destructive powers). The first two, I believe, correspond to the erotic aspects of the color pink, while the latter two represent pink devoid of eroticism. For instance, Dolores Umbridge is portrayed as an "evil mother" - a short and fat "ugly woman" with a strong desire for control. Therefore, her iconic pink attire is actually ironic; her artificial girlish appearance entices anything but eroticism, giving off an extremely unapproachable vibe. Similarly, Villanelle is depicted as a "witch" - a mischievous twisted assassin. So, when she wears a pink fluffy dress, the audience does not experience any sexual fantasies but rather feels creeped out and maybe a little awed.

How about Barbie? As a product primarily targeting girls, there are many issues of objectification associated with Barbie. However, as a groundbreaking film, it seems to go to another extreme in adopting the color. I'm not here to criticize it; actually, it is one of my favorite movies of 2023. But director Greta's use of the color pink (which is almost excessive) and her reimagining of the Barbie image also imply certain issues. Firstly, the brightness of pink chosen in "Barbie" - usually as bright as being shrill - visually challenges the comfortable and safe viewing experience that male audiences have had in the past. This further reinforces two stereotypical impressions of pink: the erotic pink is always dim, ambiguous, and soft, while the pink devoid of eroticism is bright, striking, and fluorescent.

Furthermore, the rewriting of Barbie's image, while a form of progress, presents a complex message. Barbie rejects Ken's advances, refuses a kiss, rejects romantic love narratives, and even keeps emphasizing to the audience that she has no vagina, perhaps as a way to assert her independence from traditional expectations imposed by men. However, this complete elimination of desire implies that when a girl chooses to wear pink, she must first navigate between two extremes: endorsing sexual objectification or rejecting anything related to sex like Barbie does. This dichotomy leaves no room for a middle ground. Pink is either erotic or non-erotic. On screen, it no longer appears as a natural color but carries an inescapable gender ideology. "Barbie", as feminist as the work is, inevitably gets caught in the pink trap.

However, this does not deny the possibility of the pink color expanding the spectrum of its representations beyond the two polarities of erotic and non-erotic. This can be achieved by applying pink more and more to different themes, scenes, stories, and characters, or even just posters (such as "El Conde" and "Flora and Son" mentioned above). Even if it continues to symbolize the two most common polarities in films, as long as some new elements are injected ("Barbie", though), pink will eventually have broader meanings, like how colors like blue, black, green have evolved.

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