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LOL!!!! I love it!!
Look, I've stated my position on pink guns before and I'll say it again: I really don't have an issue with women who want to have non-traditionally colored guns. I think some paint jobs look tacky and I think some look nice. To each her own. I am not against the color pink. I like pink just fine.
I was a social scientist in a previous career and I think the "issue" here is not so much the color of pink as it is the meanings we assign to it. The secondary issue is the meanings that some MEN assign to the color pink when it comes to firearms. Just look back over this very thread and note the comments made by other posters: three or so people made comments about pink in reference to being the color of choice for their children or young girls they know and three men made comments about wanting pink firearms to dissuade other men from shooting their weapon. Those comments assign "weakness" to the color pink. The same goes for all of the husbands who have come to this Ladies forum saying that his wife doesn't like guns and, if he buys her a pink one, do we think she'd end up liking guns enough to go shooting? Again, that relegates the color pink to being "weak", "non-agressive" and "non-offensive".
Are you all following me on this?
So, because of these various meanings, there are a couple different angles being taken. Women like Chickshooter object to the "girls are weak and need guns to be pink in order for us to make them like them" attitude of some men, gun shops and firearms manufacturers. Some women, like 2Cute2Shoot, promote pink as a statement of "darn right I'm a girl with a gun and what are you going to do about it?" They're both right in their own ways. What's happening is that 2Cute is not picking up on what Chickshooter is saying and Chickshooter is not picking up on what 2Cute is saying. They're really talking about two different things and, in a way, they're both promoting the empowerment of female shooters.
Earlier 2Cute commented "I happen to know that if a young girl shows up to the shooting range for her very first time with her dad and it is all loud and leering old men, but then she sees a lady who is pretty and shooting a pink rifle, she will feel better...because that girl was me." I am a less-attractive woman and I shoot ugly, black guns. Yet, at my last visit to the range, I had two girls, about 10 and 12 years old, run up to me excited and ask if they can watch me shoot. It's not so much the beauty of the woman or the color of her firearm - I think simply being a female at the range in and of itself is the ticket to reaching out to girls and young women. Other things are just extra icing on the cake.
MY TAKE: I personally dislike it when gun manufacturers decide to make a gun pink "for the little ladies". I don't like products like "lite" ammo colored pink because "the womenfolk might strain their wrists on the recoil." I find those products insulting to my intelligence and ability. If a gun manufacturer was truly interested in marketing gun colors to women, they would choose colors like purple and teal as well. But they don't - generally, they make pink and that's about it.
I also dislike it when a man decides, without his lady's input, to buy her a pink gun for hopes she'll like it better than a "scary" black pistol. But, the truth is, there are some women who do need and want pink guns in order to feel less threatened. I think that's rather silly; but, if it gets her to the range, then, meh....whatever works. Edited to clarify: I'm not referring to women like 2Cute buying pink guns for themselves because they think pink is awesome. I'm referring to women who "need" a gun to be pink in order to consider shooting it.
At the end of the day, I ride both sides on this issue because there's truth to both sides.
BK
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